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FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




WITH THIRTY-FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

CLAXTON, REMSEN. AND HAFFELFINGER. 
187 1. 



CONVEYANCES TO AND THROUGH THE PARK. 

To visit the Park from any depot or hotel, and return to the same or any other depot 
or hotel, take a hackney-coach by the hour, or 

From 
Pennsylvania Central Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Market Street car, and change 
at Twenty-third Street; time, 20 minutes. 

North Pennsylvania Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Sixth Street car, and change at 
Vine street; time, 60 minutes. 

Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore Railroad Depot to Fairmount : take Fifteenth 
Street car, and change at Arch Street; time, 45 minutes. 

Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Depot to Fairmount: take Park Accommodation 
train; time, lO minutes. 

Reading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch, to Fairmount: take Union Line 
at Spring Garden Street ; time, 20 minutes. 

New York IJnes, West Philadelphia Depot, to Fairmount : take Market Street car, and 
change at Twenty-third Street; time, 20 minutes. 

New York Lines, Walnut Street wharf, to Fairmount: take Walnut Street car, and change 
at Twenty-third Street; time 45 minutes. 

New York Lines, Kensington depot, to Fairmount: take Sixth Street car, and change at 
Vine Street; time, 60 minutes. 

The Girard House to Fairmount : take Ninth Street Line direct ; time, 30 minutes. 

The Continental to Fairmount: take Ninth Street Line direct; time, 30 minutes. 

The St. Lawrence, take Eleventh Street Line, change at Arch Street; and the Wash- 
ington House, Eighth Street Line, direct; time, 25 minutes. 

The American Hotel to Fairmount: take Fifth Street Line, and change at Vine or Arch 
Street; time, 30 minutes. 

The Colonnade Hotel and La Pierre House to Fairmount: take Fifteenth Street Line, 
and change at Arch Street; time, 20 minutes. 

The Merchants' Hotel to Fairmount : take Arch Street Line, direct ; time, 30 minutes. 
The St. Cloud Hotel to Fairmount: take Arch Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. 

At 
Fairmount : take Park carriage, or steamboat for the various points of interest in the Park, 
and return to Fairmount. 

From 
Fairmount to Pennsylvania Central Railroad Depot : take Spruce Street car, and change 
at Market Street; time 20 minutes. 

Fairmount to North Pennsylvania Railroad Depot; take Green Street car, and change at 
Fifth Street; time, 60 minutes. 

(O 



2 CONVEYANCES TO AND THROUGH THE PARK. 

Fairmount to Philadelphia, Wilmington and Baltimore Railroad Depot: take Race or 
Arch Street car, and change at Thirteenth Street; time, 45 minutes. 

Fairmount to West Chester Railroad Depot: take Spruce Street car, and change at Chest- 
nut Street; time, 15 minutes. 

Fairmount to New York Lines, West Philadelphia Railroad Depot : take Spruce Street 
car, and change at Market Street; time, 20 minutes. 

Fairmount to New York Lines, Walnut Street wharf: take Spruce Streetcar; time, 39 
minutes. 

Fairmount to New York Lines, Kensington Depot: take Green Street car, and change at 
Fifth Street; time, 60 minutes. 

Fairmount to Philadelphia and Reading Railroad Depot: take Park Accommodation 
train; time, 10 minutes. 

Fairmount to Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch: 
take Green Street car to Ninth Street ; time, 20 minutes. 

Fairmount to Girard House, Continental, Washington House, and St. Lawrence : take 
Spruce Street car, and change at Chestnut Street; time, 25 minutes. 

Fairmount to the American Plotel and Washington House: take Union Line, direct; 
time, 30 minutes. 

"airmount to Colonnade Hotel and La Pierre House: take Spruce Street car, and change 
at Chestnut Street; time, 20 minutes. 

"airmount to Merchant's Hotel: take Green Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. 

"airmount to St. Cloud Hotel: take Arch Street Line, direct; time, 30 minutes. 

OTHER MODES OF CONVEYANCE, 

ileading Railroad, Park Accommodation train, from Thirteenth and Callowhill Streets to 
Fairmount, time 10 minutes; Columbia Bridge, 20 minutes; Belmont, 25 minutes. 

leading Railroad, Germantown and Norristown branch, from Ninth and Green Streets 
to Wissahickon Station, time 20 minutes; and by same to Chestnut Hill Station, 
time, 60 minutes. 

lace and Vine Street cars, from Exchange to Fairmount, 31 minutes; to Thirty-Fifth 
Street near Solitude, time 42 minutes ; to Hestonville, near George's Hill ; time, 60 
minutes. 

Jnion Line, from Navy Yard and Richmond to Fairmount ; time, 50 minutes. 

rhe Ridge Avenue cars, from Second and Arch Streets to Edgely Point Lane, the entrance 
in the East Bank, 40 minutes; to the Falls and the Wissahickon, time, 60 minutes. 



rLJi®s @r THJE 




PHILADELPHIA. 



© m II S; y WMrTA © Ml Et T® TMI E Nl AY/T. 




BACHELORS 



f 






G' roci /o 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



SKETCHES 



SCENERY, WATERS, AND HISTORY. 



^ sJ!%A^ J-t^t^ 




PHILADELPHIA: 

CLAXTON, REMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER. 
1871. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 187 1, by 

CLAXTON, REMSEN, AND HAFFELFINGER, 

in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. All rights reserved. 



COLLINS, PRINTER. 



OBJECTS OF INTEREST. 



PAGE 

Fairmount 12 

Fairmount Water Works .... 13 

The Fountain 16 

The Mineral Spring 17 

The Barge-Houses 19 

The Skating Club House .... 22 

Lemon Hill Mansion ..... 24 

Grant's House 32 

The Schuylkill Water Works . .32 

The Tunnel 32 

The Solitude Villa 39 

West Philadelphia Water Works . 42 

The Sweet Brier Mansion .... 43 

Lansdowne Concourse 49 

The Michaux Grove 53 

George's Hill 54 

The Belmont Reservoir .... 56 

Belmont Mansion 57 



PAOK 

Chamouni 67 

The Trees at Rockland .... 69 

The Woodford Mansion .... 70 

Mount Pleasant Mansion . . . . 7' 

The Ravines 73 

The Belmont Water Works ... 77 

Moore's Cottage 7^ 

Maple Spring Museum . • • • 93 

The Log Cabin 94 

The Lover's Leap 97 

Mom. Rinkle's Rock 100 

The Monastery 102 

The Pipe Bridge 105 

The Devil's Pool 107 

Valley Green 108 

The First Fountain 109 

Indian Rock no 

Chestnut Hill "2 

(5) 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Fairmount T. Moran, from nature 12 

The Fountain " << 16 

The Boat-Houses " •' 10 

Apparatus of Humane Society . From cut in possession of the Society , . .22 

Lemon Hill Mansion . . . , H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 24 

Robert Morris's House . ... " from the painting by Samuel Breck . 25 

The Solitude " " picture in John Penn's poems 39 

The Fisher's House " " lithograph by C. G. Childs . 34 

The Three Perch Fish 37 

Sweet Brier Mansion . . . . H. Faber, from the painting by Samuel Breck . 43 

The View at the Bridge . . . T. Moran, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 47 

The Lansdowne Pines .... " Drake, " .... 49 
The Lansdowne Mansion . . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from studies and Birch's 

views 50 

The English Arms 51 

Belmont in the Olden Time . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from studies and nature 57 

View from Belmont T. Moran, from nature 59 

Chamouni in Winter . . . . H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 67 

Mount Pleasant Mansion ... " " " .... 71 

Sweet Brier Ravine T. Moran, from nature 73 

Moore's Cottage H. Faber, J. E. Sharp, from nature .... 78 

Music " " composition .... 79 

View at the Falls T. Moran, " from nature .... 80 

Fort St. Davids Schell, Crosscup, and West, from studies . . 85 

The Wissahickon T. Moran, T. M. W., " ... 91 

The Wissahickon Entrance . . " from studies 93 

The Hermit's Well 95 

The Drive T. Moran, from studies 103 

The Bridge at Creshein Creek . " " 106 

The Devil's Pool " " 107 

Valley Green " Smithwick, from studies .... 108 

The First Fountain " Drake, " .... 109 

Chestnut Hill " " «« .... 112 

(6) 



THE COMMISSIONERS OF FAIRMOUNT PARK, 
1871. 



MORTON McMICHAEL, 
GEO. G. MEADE, 
DANIEL M. FOX, 
SAMUEL W. CATTELL, 
HENRY HUHN, 
FREDERIC GRAFF, 
STRICKLAND KNEASS, 
N. B. BROWNE, 



THEODORE CUYLER, 
JOSEPH HARRISON, Jr. 
HENRY M. PHILLIPS, 
ELI K. PRICE, 
J. H. PUGH, 
GUSTAVUS REMAK, 
WILLIAM SELLERS, 
JOHN WELSH. 




(7) 



"The Schuylkill, sacred to the barge of mirth, 
Its green banks consecrate to pleasure's paths." 

" Fairmount ! on whose tall top the waters lie, 
Lifted as in a great baptismal font ; 
The height from whence the river deity 
Pours, from his giant and refreshing urn. 
The stream which slakes a grateful city's thirst." 

" In the far landscape, winding slow, 

the silvery line 

Of tranquil Delaware." 

" Here, stranger, stay ! these are the sacred grounds 
Which knew the patriots in the days agone. 
Here trod the noblest form the land has known." 

The New Pastoral. 



( 8) 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



TT^AIRMOUNT PARK, at Philadelphia, is the most extensive, and in 
-■- natural advantages the most attractive, among the pleasure-grounds 
of Europe and America. 

(9) 



lo FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

It borders and includes the Schuylkill River for a distance of ovei 
seven miles, and the Wissahickon, a tributary stream, for a distance of 
over six miles. It begins at Fairmount, a point on the Schuylkill distant 
about one and a half mile from the Centre Square of the city, and termi- 
nates at Chestnut Hill, on the Wissahickon, a distance of nearly fourteen 
miles. 

Of the two principal sections of this Park, the one bordering the 
Schuylkill contains 2240 acres. The one bordering the Wissahickon con- 
tains 450 acres. The entire Park comprises nearly 3000 acres.' It will 
require for access to its several portions more than fifty miles of carriage 
road, and one hundred miles of road-way, paths, and connections. 

The Park contains a large number of native, many foreign trees, 
shrubs, and vines, and a great variety of indigenous flowers. 

A catalogue of trees in the Schuylkill section gives 34,000 ranging 
between eighteen and twenty-seven feet in circumference ; under eighteen 
feet, 70,000; and of hard-wood shrubs and vines, 200,000. 

The dense character of the woodland along the Wissahickon has pre- 
vented any absolute calculation ; it is estimated that there are over 200,000 
trees in this section; it is heavily wooded for the distance of six miles. ^ 

Old John Holmes, who wandered over these grounds when their posses- 
sors were the aborigines, in 1689 quaintly and truly wrote : — 

"Here's store of timber trees of the best sort, 
Both for our use and also to transport, 
Cedar, birch, maple, and black walnut fine ; 
The ash, oak, hickory, and sweet-scented pine. 
With such abundance more both great and small, 
That scarcely any man can name them all." 

' Second Annual Report of Commissioners of Fairmount Park. 

2 Eighty thousand imported Norway spruce seedlings are noticed in the 2d Annual 
Report in addition to these. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. II 

Of herbaceous and cryptogamic plants, the catalogue gives 321 genera, 
and 655 species. 

Its principal river, the Schuylkill, has an average breadth of a quarter 
of a mile; in some of its portions winding so as to present the appear- 
ance of broad lakes, at others showing a full silent flow for long dis- 
tances. The Wissahickon is one of, if not the most remarkable of all 
known waters, as a type of the purely romantic in scenery. The Park 
has, besides, twenty small streams, tributaries of these, with a medicinal 
spring and many others of pure cold water/ in some places found bub- 
bling through the greensward, in others trickling down the rocky hill- 
sides. It has every variety of scenery — cascades, green and wooded 
islands, meadows, uplands, lawns, rocky ravines, high hill summits, and 
open fields. 

The Park has also the remains of the primeval forests as they stood in 
the days of the aborigines, and old historic mansions which connect the 
present era with the days prior to the Revolution, and preserve the 
memory of the greatest statesmen, jurists, and heroes of America."* 



The main carriage road from the Park entrances passes on the left hand 
a considerable elevation in terraces planted with lines of trees. This ele- 

' One hundred and fifteen springs were located in the Park in 1870. — Third Annual 
Report. 

* In works of art very little has been done. There are at Fairmount five good speci- 
mens of wood-carving by Rush, a Philadelphia artist of the early part of this century ; 
and two colossal bronze groups, a colossal bronze statue of Abraham Lincoln, executed 
by Randolph Rogers, Rome, and a small fountain of excellent design and finish, recent 
contributions of citizens of Philadelphia to the Commission, will be placed in the Park 
during the present season. 



12 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

vation was originally a rocky summit, covered with the primeval forest, 
and called "Faire-Mount," the name which it still bears and has given 
to the whole Park. 





FAIRMOUNT. 

Fairmount has its first association with the Founder of our State. His 
eye contemplated this fair mount as his place of residence, and, though 
he did not execute the purpose, the selection assures us of a taste which 
here, certainly, has met the most universal approval ; and, among all the 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



13 



men of those days, there is no one with whom our Fairmount could be 
more appropriately associated. The Founder was, with all beside for 
which we hold his name in veneration, a lover of nature ; for himself, 
having most pleasure in the country life. He gave the hill beyond its 
first name, by causing a vineyard to be planted there. He designed 
Philadelphia to be and remain " a green country town ;" and laid out its 
four open squares to be so forever ; he would have even kept the borders 
of the Delaware a grassy slope ; he called his State — Sylvania — and 
made the most blessed treaty the world ever saw (the only one that did 
not end nor begin a war), under the shadow of a tree. 



The principal attraction of Fairmount is the Water Works. 

THE FAIRMOUNT WATER WORKS.^ 

Philadelphia was first supplied with water from the Schuylkill in 1799; 
these works were commenced in 181 2, and were put in operation three 
years afterwards. 

They were originally run by steam-power. The Dam was commenced 
in 1819. Water flowed over it for the first time in 1821, and in the fall 
of 1822 the first wheel started and the use of steam was discontinued. 
The building in which these steam-engines were erected is still standing, 
and since 1835 ^^'^ ^^^^^ occupied as a saloon. Adjoining the saloon is 

• During the occupancy of Philadelphia, Sept. 26, 1776, to June 18, 1778, the British 
had pickets in the Robert Morris Mansion. Their line of redoubts began in Kensington 
and extended by Bush Hill, terminating at Fairmount. The redoubts were visible on 
the Fairmount Hill until the completion of the last reservoir. 



14 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

the entrance to the first range of the water-wheel houses. A second range 
of wheel-houses, subsequently built at right angles with the first, extends 
ti)wards the Dam. Very considerable changes have been made in the 
first range of houses since their erection, and all the old wheels are being 
replaced by turbines. 

The works when complete will have a pumping capacity of 34,191,619 
gallons per twenty-four hours. 

The Dam was entirely rebuilt in 1842-3; its overflow is 1 148 feet 10 
inches in length, and 12 feet 6 inches in height above low tide. 

The Hill at Fairmount contains four reservoirs supplied by these 
works, holding 26,996,636 gallons. 

The water-level is ninety-six leet above the city datum;' the stand-pipe 
is fifty feet high from its base, and thirty feet above the level of the 
reservoir when full. Analyses of this water, made in 1845 ^^^ 1S52, 
show a grade of purity higher than the supply of New York, and much 
higher than that of London. The monumental bust of Frederic Graff,^ 
tlie engineer by whom these works were designed, was erected here by 
the Councils of Philadelphia, June i, 1848. 

The fountain opposite the wheel-houses, Leda' and the Swan, was 
brought from the Centre Square, where the first works were erected. 

The two colossal figures in the saloon. Justice and Wisdom, were 
carved for the occasion of Lafayette's reception in this city, in 1824, 
and were the supporters of the City Coat of Arms placed on a triumphal 
arch erected in front of the old State House, in Independence Square; 
when first done, they closely resembled marble. 

The east side of the reservoir gives a fine view of Girard College, the 

1 The datum is a gi-ade based on a high-tide water-level of the Delaware. 

' The father of the present Chief Engineer. 

s Modelled in 181 2 from a celebrated belle of that day, Miss Vanuxen. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 15 

most classic building in America; the south shows the lower bridges 
of the Schuylkill, and the City ; the west gives long reaches of the Park, 
terminating with the dark hemlocks at Belmont. At the foot of the 
reservoir lies the broad expanse of the Schuylkill. 



The main carriage road, after passing Fairmount, descends mto an 
open plaza; in which are, a fountain, a pavilion which covers a mmeral 
spring, the Park carriage stand, the barge houses of the Schuylkill Navy, 
and the Steamboat Landing. 




i6 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




THE FOUNTAIN. 

This fountain occupies the site of an ancient fish-pond; in this pond 
were many goldfish which found their way into the Schuylkill by canals 
dug through the plaza when the grounds were, some years ago, given 
over to speculative purposes. The fish now in the inclosure of the 
fountain are the lineal descendants of these, and were some years ago 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 17 

taken from the Schuylkill, where they have formed a very numerous 
colony. 

THE MINERAL SPRING. 

This spring has from a very remote period enjoyed a considerable 
reputation for the strengthening properties of its waters; they are chaly- 
beate. 

On summer mornings, visitors are found around this spring, sometimes 
in sufficient numbers to recall the scenes at the more popular waters of 
Saratoga and the Badens. 

THE SCHUYLKILL RIVER. 

An ancient fisherman of the State in Schuylkill, thus describes to 
the writer this river as it was until the building of the Fairmount Dam 
and the removing of their old fishing house from the Park limits in 
1822. On the east bank, from Fairmount to the Falls, there were bold 
rocks— two remarkable ones at the Hills, and one at the Columbia 
Bridge. On the west bank,* above the Fishing House, there was also a 
large rock; but, for the most part, the shore on that side was shelving to 
the river. There were more islands than now, among them was one 
above the Fishing House, thickly wooded, a favorite resort for the 
people; a narrow channel ran between it and the shore, and the trees on 
the island and along the shore interlaced their branches. The island 
known as Peters, at the Columbia Bridge, was larger. The feature 
which characterized most noticeably both the shores and the island was 

' Nothing can equal the beauties of the cottp-cTccil which the banks of the Schuylkill 
present in descendinrr towards the south from the Falls to Philadelphia. — Ckastellux 



l8 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

a great profusion of wild flowers, coloring them with their various hues. 
On the bluffs of the east bank, and along the ridges of the west, the land- 
scape-gardeners on the country-seats had changed the natural character- 
istics of the grounds to the formal style of the times, but between these 
and the river all was untouched. 

The river was then subject to the rise and fall of the tide ; this made 
at places, where its bed was irregular and rocky, falls or descents ; there 
at the going out of the tide it ran or fell with some violence and shock, 
giving rise to one of its Indian names, "The Noisy Water;" this ceased 
with the building of the Dam, and it then assumed its present broad, 
even, silent flow; this, and the submerging of some of the islands by the 
back-water, and a decrease in the size of those which remain, are the 
most marked features of the change from that early time. Portions of 
the bluffs, also, are concealed by the bridges which now span the river. 
Other portions of them have been used by quarrymen, but many of those 
old landmarks — bluffs, islands, and shelving shores — are still clearly 
traceable; and the placid beauty of its now broader and quiet waters is 
even more attractive than its rapid flow before the erection of the Dam. 
The grounds of the old country-seats have lost much by neglect, yet 
they have also gained by the removal of the narrower, separate designs 
and road-ways of the individual owner, and their absorption into broad 
general effects and avenues for the people. The flowers are also reveal- 
ing themselves again along the shores, while the grounds around the old 
mansions, so dear to our remembrance, have been preserved and are 
being restored, so that this beautiful river, then so attractive, is returned 
again with a heightened effect to the condition of its earlier era. As one 
of its namesi evidences that it was to the aborigines, so it is to us also, 

' Called by the aborigines "Ganshewehanna," the noisy stream ; and " Manayunk," 
our place of drinking. The present is a Holland name, originating with the first settlers. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



19 



"our place of drinking," and it is to the popular determination to retain 
it for this purpose we owe mainly the preservation of its shores as a 
great public pleasure-ground. And surely never before in the world 
had a people in any city, even in the remote East or classic lands, such 
"flower-crowned bowl" from which to drink, as is this river; nor ever 
before beautified a common necessity of life with so perfect a measure 
of all its romance and poetry. 




THE SCHUYLKILL NAVY. 

"The healthful and manly exercise of rowing." 

Boating on the Schuylkill begins with the light canoe of the Indian. 
From this rude though graceful origin, and following close upon it, came 
the boats which composed the squadron of "the Colony in Schuylkill," 
and the bateaux of Fort St. David's. This squadron, called also "the 
Schuylkill Navy," was composed of the "Shirk" and the "Fly;" their 



20 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

successors, under an act passed in 1762, for the augmentation of "the 
Navy in Schuylkill," were the "Manayunk" and "Washington," re- 
spectively fifteen and seventeen feet long, they were built of mulberry 
timber, with ash oars; these remained until 1822 within the Park limits. 
The barge of the Founder, also, sometimes appeared on these waters; 
it was one of much stateliness — had a regular crew and officers — pulled 
six oars, and bore the broad pennant with the Proprietary's arms. 
The Founder had enough of the great Admiral's blood in his veins to 
delight in boats, for this barge he always manifested much solicitude, 
and in a letter to James Logan, whose words go straight to the true 
waterman's heart, he says: "But above all dead things, my barge; I 
hope nobody uses it on any account, and that she is kept in a dry dock, 
or, at least, covered from the weather." After these came the pioneer 
clubs, which preceded the present organization; the first of which, the 
"Blue Devil," was organized 1S33. Its first barge, the "Blue Devil" 
participated in the earliest regatta of which we have record (Nov. 12, 
1835). In this regatta, the Ariel, Nymph, Dolphin, and another were 
entered, four-oared barges; and the Cleopatra, Falcon, Sylph, Blue 
Devil, Metamora, Aurora, and Imp, eight-oared barges. The organiza- 
tion of the present Schuylkill Navy was effected in 1858, and the first re- 
gatta took place in 1859. It then numbered eleven clubs, the Bachelors, 
University, Keystone, Camilla, Independent, Undine, Neptune, Che- 
bucto, Quaker City, Nautilus, and Excelsior ; and twenty boats, the 
Linda, Iris, Gazelle, Ariel, Lucifer, Arab, Spree, Atlanta, Gipsey, Naiad, 
Whisper, Undine, Fawn, Irene, Menanka, Cygnet, Spider, Nautilus, 
Intrepid, and Falcon. It is now, both in its appointments and organiza- 
tion, the most complete association devoted to rowing in the world. It 
numbers ten clubs and sixty-seven boats. It has four hundred and 
seventy-one members; and its boats and houses are valued at ;g 100,000. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 21 

In addition to the regattas, and usual daily exercise, the clubs of this 
Navy sometimes make long excursions. One of these was made in 1861, 
by the Malta Club, on the Susquehanna to Havre de Grace ; another, to 
Easton, by the Pickwick Club, to which the Crescent is the successor. 
In May, 1859, the Bachelors Barge Club made an excursion on the 
Delaware River and Delaware and Raritan Canal to New York. And a 
double scull outrigger, the Fawn, of the Undine Club, made the same 
excursion, September 10, 1867; distance 105 miles, rowing time eighteen 
hours. 

An entire revolution is going on in the class of boats used by the Navy, 
which will have a very important bearing on the future of this organiza- 
tion and boating generally. The shell is superseding the others. This 
means necessarily an advance in the science itself, and, with the river best 
adapted in this country on account of its almost uniform quiet at all sea- 
sons, its width, length, and freedom from traffic, may ultimately render 
this organization the universal centre for test trials of skill and endurance. 
These trials in England, and to a great extent in this country, concentrate 
an interest which may be called national. 




22 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




THE PHILADELPHIA SKATING CLUB. 

Incorporated 1861. Its objects are improvement in the art of skating, 
and securing efficiency in the use of, and proper apparatus to rescue per- 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 23 

sons breaking through the ice. The active members in 1S64 were 260, 
honorary 10; they now number 350. 

The house occupied by the Club is forty feet front by sixty feet in 
depth, two stories high, built of fine gray stone, and pointed. The 
building is of Italian architecture, and ornamented with a handsome 
cupola and flagstaff fifty-five feet high. The roof is covered with slat- 
work, and encircled with a secure and handsome railing, and has a cupola. 

The first story, forty by sixty feet, is appropriated entirely for the life- 
saving apparatus and barge boats. The second story is divided as fol- 
lows: A Ladies' or Reception Room, fronting on the water, with a 
Retiring Room, the Members' Room, Executive Committees' Room, 
and the Board of Surgeons' Room. This room is furnished with all kinds 
of the most approved apparatus for rescuing and restoring suspended 
respiration to persons drowning, consisting of — i. Badges; 2. Cord and 
reels; 3. Ladders; 4. Hooks; 5. Axes; 6. Life-floats; 7. Station flags; 
8. Caution flags; 9. Life-lines; 10. Air-hole guards; 11. Boats; 12. 
Blankets, grapnels, and drags. The boats are made of cedar, small and 
light, about one hundred pounds in weight, and sixteen feet long^ (see 
plate). The records of the Society show that two hundred and sixty-one 
lives have been saved through its instrumentality. Among its members 
is Col. James Page, who still, as he was half a century ago, is our most 
graceful skater, and linked with all the boyish memories of the passing 
generation. 

' All these are placed at the disposal of the Commission by the Society. 



24 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Leaving the Plaza, the road ascends' the second of these hills, the site 
of Robert Morris's home, known of late years as Lemon Hill.' 




:^nj2wm 



Near the mansion which stands there,^ and of which this is a drawing, 
the road passes on the left hand two Tulip Poplars and Pines, which 

J It passes on the right hand four deciduous (swamp) cypress-trees, the remains of a 
large group. 

2 Called formerly "Old Vineyard Hill." The Founder sent a skilful gardener from 
France and introduced the culture of foreign grapes here, but with no great success. His 
contributions to the attractions of nature should also be mentioned: he sent from 
England walnuts, hawthorns, hazels, and fruit-trees; a great variety of rare seeds and 
roots from Maryland, also some panniers of trees and shrubs ; and directed by his letters 
that "the most beautiful wild (lowers of t^e woods" should be transplanted to his 
grounds. 

3 The late Mr. Pratt, a merchant of this city, was building here in the summer of 1796, 
probably erecting this mansion. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



25 



Stood there during the Revolution ; and are noble representatives of the 
primeval forest. The general character of the grounds remains un- 
changed. The forms of the superb terraces are still visible, although the 
rare flowers, vases, and statues once there are gone. There is a good 
view of Fairmount, the river, and the city from the hall-door of this man- 
sion. 

In the old house, ^ which stood here, Robert Morris resided from 1770 
to 1798, twenty-eight years — a period embracing the Revolution and the 




Presidency of Washington. He had a fine mansion in the city, but his 
house on these grounds was his home ; winter and summer his hours of 
rest and enjoyment were passed here. In 1776 (Dec. 29) he wrote to 
Baltimore, where Congress, having fled from the city, was sitting: "I 
have always been satisfied with Philadelphia and the Hills. At the same 
time I have been constantly prepared; my things packed up, horses and 
carriages ready at any moment ; I dine at the Hills to-day, and have 
done so every Sunday. Thus, you see, I continue my old practice of 
mixing business with pleasure; I ever found them useful to each other." 



^ The cut is a fac-simile of Robert Morris's home, from a painting by the late Samuel 
Brack. 



26 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

And when the evil days came, in which he had no pleasure, still he 
clung to this place. From "the Hills" he wrote (Feb. 8, 179S): "It is 
the only place of calmness and quiet my foot was in all day yesterday." 

ROBERT MORRIS. 

Robert Morris was the representative of the capitalists of the Colonies, 
the most honorable, and the most unfortunate. As such, he has left, of 
his public life, three records, intelligible to his own and to after genera- 
tions. His first record is a letter, a short extract from which follows; it 
was written on these grounds. 

From the Hills on Schuylkill: — 

"July 20th, 1776. 

"It is the duty of every individual to act his part in whatever 
station his country may call him to, in a time of difficulty, danger, or dis- 
tress." 

His second record is his signature to the great Declaration, and the 
pledge of his financial abilities and his private fortune to the cause of the 
Colonies. 

His third record is the ledger of his counting-house and the folios 
of the Government, of which he was the Treasurer from the year 17S1 
to the close of the Revolution. These show that he held the army 
together, from hour to hour, through the Revolution, by the credit of 
his individual name.' 

Among the items of the accounts of this faithful steward are some 
which illustrate the whole. 1779 and 1780 were the most distressing 

> "The individual notes of Robert Morris circulated as cash through the Colonies." — 
Chastelliix (1780). 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 27 

years of the war. On a pressing occasion, during this period, Washing- 
ton communicated to Judge Peters the condition of the public stores : 
his army was without cartridges, those in the men's boxes were wet; if 
attacked, retreat or destruction was inevitable. In this emergency the 
Board of War, of which Judge Peters was Secretary, was powerless ; all 
the lead accessible was exhausted, even to the lead spouts of the houses, 
and the Board was then offering for it, without obtaining any, the equiva- 
lent in paper of two shillings in specie a pound. Judge Peters showed 
Washington's letter to Mr. Morris, who was with others at a reception at 
Don Juan Merailles's, the Spanish Minister. 

By a fortunate concurrence, a privateer had that day arrived at the 
wharf at Philadelphia, one-half consigned to Mr. Morris. He said to Judge 
Peters, one-half the cargo of the Holka is consigned to me; she is at 
the wharf, take the one-half of the fortunate supply — it is ninety tons of 
lead; the owners of the. other half are standing there; get theirs also. 
But, said Judge Peters, they will make no further advances to the govern- 
ment. Then, said Mr. Morris, I take myself their portion and deliver it 
to you. The arrangement was at once made. That night one hundred 
hands were employed. Before morning a supply of cartridges was on its 
way to the army. 

Again, December, 1776, from his broken army on the Delaware, 
Washington wrote that without specie an offensive movement could not 
be made. This letter was sent by a confidential messenger to Mr. Morris; 
but it seemed impossible, in the general confusion and flight of the citi- 
zens, to raise the sum required. Among his acquaintances, however, was 
a cautious but straightforward capitalist. To this man he made his wishes 
known. What is the security for this sum? said the capitalist. My note 
and my honor, was the answer of Morris. On that security I will loan 



28 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

the money, was his answer. With this money Washington was enabled 
safely to cross the Delaware and secure the decisive result at Trenton. 

At the most critical period of our nation's early history, 1781, Judge 
Peters, Robert Morris, and Washington were together at the Head- 
quarters of the Army, on the North River. Washington received on that 
occasion a letter from the Count De Grasse, announcing his determination 
to remain in the West Indies with the French fleet. Washington read the 
letter, which destroyed at one blow his plan of operations on the city 
of New York, and resolved at once on the expedition to Virginia. Turn- 
ing to Judge Peters, he said. What can you do for me? With money, 
everything; without it, nothing — was the brief reply, as he turned with an 
anxious look to Morris. Let me know the sum you desire, said the Patriot 
Financier. Washington's estimates were made that night. Morris placed, 
within the required time, the amount of the estimates in Judge Peters's 
hands — the army moved. The result was the surrender of Lord Corn- 
wallis, at Yorktown — the successful close of the war for the Independence 
of the Colonies. 

Judge Peters gives the requirements of Washington, for this brilliant 
and final effort, as follows : " Seventy to eighty pieces of battering cannon, 
and one hundred of field artillery, were completely fitted and sent on for 
service in three or four weeks, progressively; and the whole together, 
with the expense of provisions for, and pay of, the army was accom- 
plished on Mr. Morris's credit, which he pledged in his notes, which were 
all paid, to the amount of one million four hundred thousand dollars. 
Assistance was, 'tis true, afforded by Virginia and other States, from the 
merit whereof I do not mean to detract. We had no money in the War 
Office chest; the Treasury was empty; and the expedition would never 
have been operative, had not most fortunately Mr. Morris's credit and 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. ' 29 

superior exertions and management supplied the indispensable sine qua 
non:'^ 

These are items in the account of this faithful steward. And when it 
is considered that bills of credit finally would buy nothing; that cattle 
died on the road to the army for want of public money to buy provender; 
Jthat the Colonies themselves ceased to comply with the requisitions upon 
them ; that clothes for the soldiers were sold to pay the more suffering 
needlewomen who made them — we may estimate how constant were those 
drains upon his private fortune, and how large was their aggregate. 

From the spirit and the word of that letter from "the Hills," Robert 
Morris, from the first to the last, never swerved. The signature which he 
appended to the Declaration was repeated again and again to notes which 
were met as they matured, and which amounted to millions; but this ex- 
penditure of his private fortune, princely as it was, was not the measure 
of his service. The folios of the Government show a reduction of ex- 
penses, while its finances were in his hands, from eighteen to four millions 
annually, and this still was not the full measure of his service. These 
pledges of the individual wealth of a man, who was himself the national 
coffer, inspired 2& well as sustained the country; this completes the mea- 
sure of his services, for this he was called in his day the right arm of the 
Revolution. 

In that old mansion, which Morris so loved, and which was at last his 
refuge, have been assembled as his guests the most honored men in this 
land. Franklin, John Adams, Hancock ; many of the signers of the 
Declaration, members of the Continental Congress, and officers of the 



> Judge Peters to Alexander Garden, Esq., Belmont, Dec. 20, 1821, MS. 

John Adams was for some time his near neighbor. His house was at Bush Hill. 



30 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

Army and navy. On these grounds he received from all the States, and 
from patriotic hearts in other lands, tributes to his financial power and 
financial honor ; resolutions and gifts which he preserved through all his 
after misfortunes. Here he originated those enterprises, evidences of 
which yet remain on this river, and which, far in advance of his age, 
extending over all the States and embracing the prominent industries of 
his time, culminated in his utter ruin. Here also took place that last sad 
scene in his life — the great financier bowed down with age, helpless to 
preserve his own fortunes, following an officer down these terraced 
grounds, to be consigned^ by laws now for the honor of human nature 
obsolete, to a common jail. 

And here remains forever the regretful remembrance, that the owner 
of land in all the States; of a palace, whose marble walls rose in 
mockery of his fate before the black stones of his prison ; and of these 
fair grounds — a man whose money, as much as their strong arms, trans- 
ferred to the people the title and the lands of this great commonwealth, 
and the broader area of the nation, met such a fate. 

The palace mocks no more — the prison blights no more the earth where 
it stood — what was mortal of Morris moulders in the grave — but the 
results of his life remain for human happiness ; and these grounds, sad- 
dened while ennobled by their association with his name, remain his fit- 
ting monument. The air that blows about them is the common property 
of the poorest as of the wealthiest. Their verdure grows for the little 
child, ignorant of the meaning of property, and for the old man who has 
seen it swept away from him forever. The water that flows along them 
is the common heritage of all. Within them every man stands in every 
right the equal of his fellow-man. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 31 



The main carriage road passes next over the third of these hills, 
formerly known as 

SEDGELEY PARK. 

This portion of the grounds, a tract of thirty-four acres, was purchased 
by contributions from citizens of Philadelphia, and presented to the city, 
in 1857, for a public park and to preserve the purity of the Schuylkill 
water. The acceptance of this gift by the city was followed by its im- 
mediate dedication to the people for their use and enjoyment. A tasteful 
little structure stands here, formerly a porter's lodge, for a mansion 
which stood here overlooking the river ; the view from this portion of 
the grounds gives the bridges — the nearer the Girard Avenue, and the 
farther the Railroad Bridge — the Solitude on the opposite shore with its 
fine grove, and the site of the old fishing-house of the State in Schuylkill. 
Here are found some trees worthy of notice — the most remarkable one 
the road passes on the right hand. The hill breaks off in bluffs along 
the margin of the river, and forms a ravine through which a little rivulet 
runs ; and along whose border violets, spring beauties, quaker ladies, 
and the May apple, the first spring offerings, are found. This hill is 
about eighty feet above the river — it has been selected as the site for a 
monument to Humboldt. The most notable object in Sedgeley is an 
earthwork, yet traceable, constructed during the late war as part of the 
system of defences for Philadelphia; it is on its highest elevation near 
the bridge. There is also on these grounds another relic of those days — 



22 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

GRANT'S COTTAGE. 

The small frame house which stands on these grounds was brought 
here, at the close of the late war, from City Point. It was there occupied 
by General Grant as his headquarters. 



The main carriage road gives a broad view of the river as it gradually 
descends the hill to the Girard Avenue Bridge. 

THE SCHUYLKILL WATER WORKS. 

These Works, brick buildings in the Egyptian order, stand in a ravine 
just beyond this bridge; they are operated by steam. Their pumping 
capacity is 22,947,000 gallons per diem. The storage room in the reser- 
voir, attached to the Works, is 9,800,000 gallons. The Connecting. Rail- 
way Bridge crosses here. The road unites railroad lines for all sections 
of the nation. Near its east abutment is 

THE TUNNEL. 

The hill, which forms the farther side of the ravine in which these 
works are situated, terminates in a huge rock, which rises abruptly from 
the water's edge to the height of sixty feet; this rock. Promontory Point, is 
tunnelled through for a road along the river. The tunnel is one hundred 
and forty feet long, forty-one feet wide, and twenty-two feet nine inches 
high, and is throughout solid natural rock, without any lining whatever; it 
is elliptical in section, with straight sides and an arched roof. It was 
begun October, 1870, and will be finished June, 1871. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. ^^ 



The old Fairmount Park here terminates and the new acquisitions begin. 

All this ground from Fairmount, Robert Morris's old estate, was secured mainly to 
preserve the water in the Fairmount Dam from contamination, and the several parcels 
into which it had become divided have, from time to time, been the subject of prolonged 
struggles, in which, however, the result was gained, at whatever cost, the last holders of 
the old proprietary titles yielding them to the people. 

In this civil revolution of titles and opinions the Cope family bore a most honorable 
part, both in individual expenditure and wise direction of the municipal affairs. The 
Commissioners appropriately acknowledge, in their First Annual Report, these till then 
unnoted services. 



Before reaching the Works, the road turns to the left, and crosses 
Girard Avenue Bridge to the west side of the river; it then turns to the 
right, and passes under the Railway Bridge and along the Lansdowne 
drive. A road, at the same point, turns to the left at a large tree close 
to the bridge ; below this tree, and in former days, stood the most 
ancient court-house of the State in Schuylkill— a company of fishermen. 
Its site is marked by the remains of a group of trees which shadowed it, 
and by a spring whose waters these fishermen drank, and which flows up 
cold and limpid to-day as it did when they drank its cup of cool refresh- 
ment a century ago. 




34 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 







THE STATE IN SCHUYLKILL. 

" Atte the leest he hath his holsom walke and mery at his ease a swete ayre of the 
swete savoiire of the meede; floures that makyth him hungry, and if the angler talie fysshe 
surely there is noo man merier than he is in his spyryte."' 

A tract'^ beginning at Solitude, and extending to the Sweet Brier Man- 
sion, was formerly called "Egglesfield." Its first owner, a contemporary 
with the aborigines, was one William Warner,^ an amiable and worthy 
man, and a member of the durable order of plain colors and rectitude. 
Nearly a century and a half ago (the year 1732), certain gentlemen, fol- 



• Cook of St. Albans. 

2 The estate was of late years the property of the Borie family, of Philadelphia. 

3 William Warner died Sept. 12, 1794. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



35 



lowers of ''Walton," leased one acre of this tract; this they inclosed 
with a worm-fence. 

For the ground, they formally delivered on a large pewter plate to 
William Warner, as a yearly rental, every spring, "three sun perch ilsh," 
and they elevated him to the dignity of a Baron, so that he might be the 
more worthy to receive the service of this feudality. After securing the 
title to the one acre of ground, it is said they got together some of the 
same Indian chiefs who signed "the Treaty" with the Founder, and as 
they had no Elm trees, they sat them down under their Black Walnut 
trees. 

They smoked many calumets of peace with them, and entered into a 
similar solemn treaty for the privilege of hunting and fishing at all times 
forever along these shor-es. The consideration for the privilege they 
ladled out to these swarthy granters from a large bowl, and if the courses 
of their signatures along the parchment were devious ones, it would assure, 
what we might credit without the assurance, that no advantage was taken 
of them in the consideration. The preliminaries thus arranged, these 
fishermen, with their sturdy arms, hewed down trees enough and erected 
themselves a hut. Then they constituted themselves, by letters patent, a 
colony, by name "The Colony in Schuylkill." For the Colony they 
elected a Governor, to order its general affairs ; a Sheriff, to serve writs 
of execution on the feathered denizens of the forest and the restive tres- 
passers of the stream ; a Coroner, to view their inanimate forms after exe- 
cution and pronounce them dead and edible. Having done all this, they 
then sat down to fish; and what is an incredible thing to all but fisher- 
men, they continued to sit there ninety years; at the end of this time, 
one morning their spirits became sorrowful, their corks rested on the 
water motionless. Looking around them, they perceived that civilization 
had been advancing steadily towards them, while they had been uncon- 



36 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



sciously sitting there, and that ''an anathema"' fatal to fishermen had been 
levelled against them at Fairmount; a barrier through which their faithful 
fish could reach their hooks no longer. Then they got up, and, carrying 
their house with them, followed the course of the finny tribe further 
down the stream, and beyond the Park limits, where they and the house 
still remain, but where the limits of this book forbid us to follow them. 
When these patient fishermen sat down to fish, one hundred and forty 
years ago, from the old Independence Hall to the borders of this Park 
was one unbroken wilderness. The canoe of the Indian was still there, 
and the deer drank at the borders of this stream ; now, a city," with nearly 
a million of people, covers this whole area; the silver shad come to them 
no more, the rock more and more rarely, and the memory of the one 
trout fish they caught in this stream, a century ago, grows dimmer every 
hour, but they still sit quietly beside its borders, and they say to us, in 
their master's words, "No life is so happy and so pleasant as the life of 
a well-governed angler, for when the lawyer is swallowed up in business, 
and the statesman is preventing or contriving plots, then he possesses 
himself in quietness;" and it is truly said of angling, what Dr. Boteler said 
of strawberries, "Doubtless God could have made a better berry, but 
doubtless God never did." And so, if we maybe judges, God never 
did make a more calm, quiet, innocent recreation than angling, nor, it 
may be well added, worthier types of the good virtues of the angler than 
themselves. May they long continue to enjoy the savory shad upon the 
smoking board, the crisp, white catfish, and the steaming rock, "dishes 
of meat too good for any but anglers, or very honest men." 



' The Fairmount Dam. 

" In 1745 there were but 2049 houses in Philadelphia; in 1871, 122,751. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



37 



With the Revolution, this Colony, along with the others, rose naturally to the dignity 
of a State, in which condition it now remains. The last Governor of the Colony, and the 
first of the State in Schuylkill, was Samuel Morris, known as "Christian Samuel," a 
member of the Society of Friends; he was Governor for forty-six years, a member fifty- 
eight years. He was also a captain of our City Troop. When the Revolutionary War 
began, he quietly laid down his angle and took up a sword; he laid down also his broad- 
brim hat, because it was, like his angle, unsuitable for warfare. When the war was over, 
he laid down the sword with sad memories of death and suffering that had come 
very near to him, but with the quiet satisfaction of a duty done. He put on his hat, took 
up his angle again, and sat down beside this stream to fish as before. He was still sitting 
here when a very old man, seventy-eight years old. He died in 1812, full of years and 
peace. 




The most memorable days of this company are — 

The loth October, 1767. The great repast, when a turtle was served which cost, when 
beef was three cents a pound and Madeira thirty cents a bottle, four pounds and ten 
shillings, one-third the cost of their house. 

The r4th June, 1787. The entertainment of his Excellency General Washington, 
with the officers of the army and navy, in their old court-house ; its most memorable day. 

July 4th, 1788. When the great National Jubilee was celebrated there with great 
pomp and circumstance, 

March, 1789. When one of the members caught with a lay-out line a fifteen-inch 
trout. A marvellous feat for all time. Judge Peters, on this occasion, had a seat near 
General (President) Wharton. We want some wine, said the General to one of the 



38 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

younger members ; please call John. I would suggest, said the Judge, that it would be 
safer to bring the demi-john. 

September 15th, 1791. When a sturgeon leaped from the river into one of their 
bateaux, and was captured by these steady-nerved fishermen, confirming, if it needed 
confirmation, what old John Holmes wrote about this fish (1689) : — 

" The sturgeon briskly through the waters bounce, 
And now and then they into boats do flounce." 

1793. During a terrible fever, when there was fed from the fish-house table a multi- 
tude of persons, rich and poor, with fresh fish every morning. 

1825. When Lafayette completed the tour of all the States of the Union, as he said, 
by a visit to this State, and feelingly alluded to the time wlien he crossed this river in the 
dark days of the Revolution. 

i860. When the Governor of Pennsylvania (A. G. Curtin, now Minister at St. 
Petersburg) was received by the Governor of this ancient State in Schuylkill,' at the 
court-house, with such mutual formalities as befitted the representatives of these sove- 
reignties ; for no other of our States is more ancient nor has been so always honest, wise, 
and temperate in its counsels as the State in Schuylkill. 

May I, 1832. The day of their centenary, a great festive occasion, made beautiful 
with tributes of flowers gathered on the banks of this river, and song and honor to the 
dead of the Republic, and their own; and good Isaac Walton, of blessed memory. 
Among their toasts that day he was not forgotten, as never are forgotten the fathers of 
the Revolution. 

On the occasion of the reception of Lafayette, Judge Peters was present, and sang 
with the happiest effect, to the great delight of his old Revolutionary companion. 

Among the toasts that day were those which are always annually given : The Memory 
of their Governor, Morris ; The Army ; The Navy ; Our Sister States ; The State in 
Schuylkill ; Our Country ; and these : — 

National Gratitude — The brightest jewel in a nation's diadem. 

' The present location of the house is near Gray's Ferry. It is there the first botanic 
garden in America was laid out and planted by John Bartram, the pioneer botanist of 
this country. Near there also is the Woodlands, formerly the seat of the Hamilton 
family, the earliest and then the best specimen of landscape-gardening in this country. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



39 



Our Distinguished Guest and the Nations — The name of Lafayette is en- 
graven on every heart ; a worthy associate of his great Military Father. 

The Heroes of the Revolution — Living or dead, their glory is imperishable. 
The Memory of our Father — Washington. 



The Solitude is a short distance beyond the site of the fishing-house, 
and is bordered by a wood. 




^s.'--\\'«* 



THE SOLITUDE. . 

The Villa, as its first owner described it, "near Philadelphia, built by 
me while I resided in America," was erected in 1785 by John Penn — the 
poet, a grandson of the Founder. It remained in the Penn family until 
its purchase by the Park Commissioners. The house, except from age, 
remains quite as the builder left it, and is a pleasant poet's home. It 



40 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



has a small drawing-room; a room adjoining, which served both for a hall 
and sitting-room ; a chamber with an alcove, for his hours of rest ; a 
library, where at once he was his author and auditor; and deep and 
roomy cellars for his wine. This fortunate poet's old bookcases, set in 
the wall, give the same quiet to the room they did the days when he" 
lived there. His sulmy sitting-room is quite the same. The secret door 
by which he shut himself from visits of intrusive friends, closes as quietly 
to as it did so many years ago. The life of the builder of this mansion 
is in strong contrast with the severe and broad virtues of William Penn 
and the other great historic characters who have made these grounds 
memorable. John Penn, the poet, loved solitude, but he made this 
place an enviable solitude; and though he loved his own poems and 
read them all day long, and though they had no other reader, yet they 
show what guests assembled in his solitude. Dante was there ; Chaucer, 
"the well of English undefiled;" Petrarch and Tasso ; and Anacreon. 
Here he sat dreaming through the summer days, the leisure days of a life 
which all was leisure. In one of the volumes of his poems, printed in 
London in 1801, he gives a view of this villa, of which the above is a 
fac-simile, and calls it "The Solitude." The white dove he has had the 
artist picture flying close along the lawn had been a favorite bird, and 
he there deplores, with Anacreon' s pleasant thoughts and in these old- 
time words and verse, its death: — 

" Thine, oft I said (nor hoped' so near thy end), 
Are all things round, 2 the grove, and cloudless skyj 
While cheers the enlivening ray, sport and enjoy ; 
Thine are yon oaks that o'er the stream impend, 
And rocks that, as I stray with musing eye. 
Or wonder^ from the shed,* can never cloy." 

1 Hope, expect. 2 Round, around. " Wonder, admire. * Shed, door. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



41 



It is said he planted every tree about this house with his own hands; 
this there is reason to believe, and for the many trees which yet remain, 
and for that picture of the dove flying across the lawn, we keep his 
memory. 

GRANVILLE JOHN PENN. • 

Granville John Penn, the great-grandson of the Founder, the last 
private owner of Solitude, and the last of the Founder's name, visited 
this country in 1851. His father in his time one of the most learned lay- 
men of England, and himself a kindly old English gentleman, he was the 
recipient, from our old-time citizens and from the authorities, of suitable 
attentions. In aj:knowledgment of these attentions, he gave a collation 
at "The Solitude." It is interesting to remember that this house was 
the last property here of a family which was once the owner of the broad 
State of Pennsylvania ; the descendants of a wise and good man, whose 
title, unlike so many others in this and other countries, was founded "in 
deeds of peace," kept with "unbroken faith." Mr. Penn wished that 
the city should become its owner, and keep it for the Founder's name. 
He did not live to see this pious wish fulfilled, which since his death, to 
our advantage, has been done. The sale of this property to the city, 
and the release by himself in 1852 of the render of a red rose at Christ- 
mas from the good people of Easton, closes the long account of that 
great Founder's name with ourselves ; its own account on earth now also 
closed forever. 



Granville John Penn died at Stoke Poges, England, March 29, 1867. He was the 
last (save one since deceased) of that line. 



42 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Adjoining the grounds of ''the Solitude" are the West Philadelphia 
Water Works. 

WEST PHILADELPHIA WATER WORKS. 

These Works are not now in operation. The stand-pipe is a very 
prominent object in the Park. It is surrounded by a circular stairway 
from its base to its summit. It is one hundred and thirty feet high, and 
eight feet in diameter. 

Return from these Works to the main carriage drive, at the Lansdowne 
entrance;* the road here passes under the Railway Bridge, first rises and 
then descends, and gives fine views of the river. At the lowest point of 
its descent it passes under a bridge, rises again, and so reaches 

' From July i to Nov. i, 1869, a record of visitors, kept at this point, shows pedestrians, 
86,250; equestrians, 5120; vehicles, 55,396; an aggregate of 257,558 persons passing 
into the Park by this entrance. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



43 




THE CHILDREN'S PLAY-GROUNDS. 

These grounds, called Sweet Brier, are fitted up with flying-horses and 
swings for children, and especially set apart for them. There are many 
fine forest-trees here, giving an agreeable shade, and it is a great resort 
for the little ones on Saturday afternoons. The grounds command a fine 
view of the river and of other portions of the Park. The mansion which 
stands here was the residence for many years of 



SAMUEL BRECK. 

A golden link of the clays of the Revolution and our own times. 

Mr. Breck was born in Boston, in 177 1, He was educated near Tou- 
louse, in Languedoc, in the Royal and Military School of Sorenze. His 



44 



FAIRMOUNT PARK, 



instructors were Benedictine monks. He remained at this school from 
his eleventh until his sixteenth year. His companions were the Prince de 
Carignan, ancestor of the King of Sardinia, several Italian and Spanish 
noblemen, Dessaix, and others, whose lives passed away into obscurity 
or ended in the violence of revolutions. 

His own life was kept for gentler and better uses. 

After a sojourn in his native place, he again visited Europe in the dark 
dawn of the French Revolution. He saw the King, Queen, and the 
Dauphin, the prisoners of the populace, about to expiate their predeces- 
sors' crimes. He saw the old teachers and pupils he loved driven from 
their ancient seat of learning, some to perish in the September massacres, 
some themselves to urge on the tide of crime. 

These scenes made the quiet and calm progress of our Republic in- 
tensely dear to him. 

He lived at Sweet Brier thirty-eight years. In the leisure hours of his 
business he cultivated here the sciences, the arts of music and design, 
and was foremost in every good work.^ 

"Farmer Breck," as his good friend and neighbor. Judge Peters, 
always called him, had here a model place; and while the Judge theo- 
rized, and saw the State rise through his theories to wealth, Farmer Breck, 
in their practical application, made his place a marvellous example of 
their value. 

He gave a due proportion of his life to public affairs. 

He served four years in the State Senate, where he laid the foundation 
of our system of internal improvements, and further made his name mem- 
orable by his bill for the final emancipation of the slaves in Pennsylvania. 

' He was accomplished in all the graces of his time, and thoroughly read in its litera- 
ture. In his life he never passed an idle hour, nor uttered an uncourteous word. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 45 

He served afterwards in the National Legislature (the i8th Congress), 
among the most memorable men our nation ever possessed, and in hal- 
cyon days of the Republic. 

He again served in the State Senate, and there drew the bill for the 
establishment of the Common School System of Pennsylvania. 

His services, from that time, were in positions of the very highest tri'st 
and importance in Philadelphia, and continuous to the year of his death. 

Although a business man, Mr. Breck knew what the legitimate claims of 
business were, by what means money should be made, how much time 
should be given to its acquisition, and to what uses it should be applied. 
At the outset of his life, rather than live where illegitimate gain was 
sanctioned by common consent, he deliberately sacrificed an easy, safe, 
and rapid road to wealth which lay before him, and began with a small 
capital to make slower gains through longer* years. He was a gentleman 
of the old school, and he preserved its courtesies on the street, in the 
counting-room, at the social board, with child and man, servant and 
dignitary of the State, the same. His salutations were formal, yet under 
them a gentle kindliness shone which lifted up the hearts of all to him in 
affection and reverence. 

He was true to his party predilections, but with this preference ran 
evenly an earnest love for the whole country. 

He was careful in all formal religious observances, but within he kept 
burning brightly that inner light, without which all religious observances 
are vain. 

His life covered' the most momentous periods of our country's history. 
He welcomed Lincoln, the great representative of freedom of our gene- 
ration, to this city in 1861, where he had also stood in the august pres- 

1 Born July 17, 1771. Died August 22, 1862, aged 91 years and 46 days. 



46 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

ence of Washington. He had been held up a child in his nurse's arms 
to witness the smoke and flame of Bunker Hill, and he was yet living 
when Sumter's smouldering ruin lit the flames of civil war. Through 
all these long years he was changeless in his love and devotion to our 
institutions. His last words were (uttered among those dark days of 
civil war) — what of — my country. 

There is something peculiarly appropriate in the selection of Sweet 
Brier as the children's play-ground, not only because he first gave legal 
direction to our common school system, but was a dear friend to little 
children. He was a constant visitor to the parish school of his church 
(the Episcopal), took the most lively interest in its progress, and by the 
sprightliness and benignity of his manner completely won the hearts of 
all the pupils. They looked forward to the day of his coming as to a 
holiday. 

He was also one of the founders, for many years president, and to 
the last year of his life a visitor of the Institution for the Blind, and by 
these most afflicted of God's children best beloved. His step was 
recognized by them among all the others as he entered their hall. 



The main carriage road, after leaving this mansion, passes through a 
grove of trees, some among them very venerable old forest monarchs, 
oaks and chestnuts; then, by easy grades, it winds along the open 
grounds, and so reaches a rustic bridge which crosses the river road. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



47 




THE VIEW FROM THE BRIDGE. 



The view from this bridge is certainly the best along all the middle 
ground of the west bank. A little below, and quite near it, stands the 
worn-out trunk of a large tree, solidly engirt with a new growth, a second 
life from itself, preserving its old form and existence. 

From this tree the Lansdowne ravine descends to the river; a fair 
landscape holds the eye with reliefs and harmonies of hill and lawn and 
woodland, and the imagination with historic suggestions of the resi- 
dences of bygone days. Far up the river, set boldly against the sky, 
stand the dark hemlocks of the good old Belmont Mansion, endeared 
by the memory of Lafayette, Steuben, and Washington; and yet further 



48 FAIRxMOUNT PARK. 

beyond and higher, Chamouni, the type of our broader and further 
future : all first the abode of savage life, a wilderness; then the estate of 
a family and the dominion of a king; then a battle-ground for freedom; 
and last, the property of the people, for the happiness and good of all. 

The road, crossing the bridge,^ passes first, on the right hand, a fine 
old relic of the forest, standing on a slight elevation alone ; opposite 
this old tree is a group of young trees recently set there f beyond them, 
the road in broad curves passes along the Lansdowne Ravine, and around 
the head of this ravine ; keeping close along its border, it reaches a tall 
branchless dead pine ; near this trunk another pine of grand proportions, 
and beyond it a friendly group of six more, which, like hospitable hosts, 
invite rest : this point is the Lansdowne Concourse. 

' A road diverges from this road immediately after it passes over the bridge, and passes 
under the bridge; this is the river road elsewhere described. 
* Brought from the Centre Square, January, 187 1. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



49 




LANSDOWNE CONCOURSE. 

This point is very attractive. On one side rest the grateful shadows of 
the Lansdowne Valley, to the foot of which, from these pines, a minia- 
ture Alpine zigzag descends ; and on the other, a broad open ground, 
bordered by the Belmont Valley, commands a view of the river and the 
opposite shores. A companion group of pines, the survivors of twelve, 
stand a little further on. At equal distances from the groups of pines a 
mansion formerly stood, built by John Penn, the Governor. 
5 



50 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




LANSDOWNE MANSION. 

The noble estate of Lansdowne contained two hundred acres, extend- 
ing from Sweet Brier to Behnont and George's Hill.^ The mansion was 
built before the Revolution. It was a grand structure for those times. 
A broad carriage drive led to it from an entrance beyond the Belmont 
Road, where formerly stood a large gateway. It had extensive conser- 
vatories, and the grounds were adorned with vases, fountains, and box 
cut in the formal style of the period. A private passage led from the 
mansion to the river. It was in later times the residence of Joseph 



' During the occupancy of Philadelphia in the winter of 1777, the British had an en- 
campment on these grounds. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

Bonaparte, ex-King of Spain. ^ Its last owner, prior to its purchase by 
the city, was the late Lord Ashburton. The mansion had been much 
neglected, although still in good preservation until a recent period. It 
was accidentally destroyed by boys with fireworks, celebrating the fourth 
of July, 1854. 




JOHN PENN. 

' ' The Honorable John Penn, ' ' • called ' ' the American, ' ' was Lieutenant- 
Governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Province of Pennsylvania and 
Counties of New Castle, Kent, and Sussex on Delaware from 1763 to 1771 
and from 1774 to 1776. He was a not unworthy representative of " the 
Founder;" his first act, followed by many like actions, was to carry out 

'Cousin of John Penn, of Solitude; born in Philadelphia, and thence derived the 
designation. 



52 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



that great man's intentions to the Indians who remained in the Province, 
and to protect them from outrage and violence. But his good record 
does not end there ; during the whole term of his office, a prolonged one, 
he gave a wise and serious attention to the public affairs, and supported 
the honor and dignity of his family and of the Province. He maintained 
royal state on these grounds, and sumptuous surroundings, but also a clear 
record of wise government. His times were troublous ones; he was the 
last representative of the Founder who had authority here, and the last 
representative of kingly power in Pennsylvania. He bore up bravely 
against the coming violence of the storm of the Revolution, but, like some 
stately and unyielding tree, broke down before it. The bold free airs 
which swept about our land those days made sad havoc among the royal 
oaks transplanted to this uncongenial soil.' 



' He retained throughout that season of trial the good-will of the worthy of all parties. 
After the dissolution of the government, though politically restrained, he was treated with 
the respect due to his exalted station and private worth. His successor was the sterling 
fisherman and patriot, Thomas Wharton. He was called from the old court-house, at 
the Baron Warner's, to preside over Pennsylvania, vice the fallen governor, in 1776. 

John Penn resided in this mansion after the war; was visited by Washington in 1787. 
He died in Bucks County in this State, February 9, 1795, at the age of sixty-seven. His 
remains were taken back to England. 

"The Penn estate," says the late Judge Conrad, "was the largest one ever sequestered 
in civil war; it was estimated at ^10,000,000 sterling. The heirs received as a compen- 
sation from the British Government an annuity of ;if4000; and the State of Pennsylvania, 
in remembrance of the founder, awarded them ;^i30,ooo." Their private estates were 
not divested, but have been held and inherited by succeeding members of the family 
down to our own day. "Solitude," as stated before, was purchased from them by the 
city. The governor, by his will, dated January 2, 1795, devised Lansdowne to his wife, 
Mrs. Anne Penn, and by subsequent conveyances through her title it also became the 
property of the city. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



53 



With the remaining portions of this Park begins a new era in its pro- 
gress; they were acquired under the direction of the present Commission 
and by authority of the City and the Commonwealth. From acquisitions 
of ground by thirty, forty, or even one hundred and forty, the work ad- 
vanced to three thousand acres; but yet always with the same objects 
with which the prior purchases were made and gifts of these estates 
accepted by the city — "the heaUh and enjoyment of the people of Phila- 
delphia and the preservation of the purity of its water supply. ' ' This little 
book is not the place to do justice to the liberal conception of this act, 
less to the labors of the members of this Commission and their satisfactory 
results. It is their good fortune to be chosen guardians for the people of 
a trust of inestimable value, the preservation of old historic landmarks 
fast passing away, and of nature as rapidly being destroyed ; the develop- 
ing also of the Park idea into one of such colossal proportions as to place 
Philadelphia in the van of all the cities of Europe and America. 



The main carriage road from the Concourse passes first on the right 
hand the survivors of the Twelve Pines ; immediately beyond these the 
river opens like the broad and placid bosom of a lake, with the city's 
spires, Fairmount, and the bridges for its boundaries. A little further, on 
the left hand, is the severed trunk of a once huge chestnut, from which 
have sprung a bower of sixteen young trees; yet a little further, three 
large trees which stand like sentinels. Beyond these the road passes, on 
the right hand, a grove of oaks^ and cedars, under whose shadows Bel- 

' The Michaux grove, ultimately to contain a specimen of every oak which will grow 
in this climate. Oaks embracing sixteen species have been planted there during the past 
year. 

5* 



54 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



mont Valley descends to the river, and on the left a fine piece of Eng- 
lish lawn marked by a very symmetrical solitary tree. A by-road leads 
through the grove to the Belmont Mansion. The main carriage road 
passes by the head of the valley, crosses the Belmont Avenue, ascends 
an easy grade, leaves on the right hand the Belmont Reservoir, and so 
rises to 



m- 



GEORGE'S HILL. 



As IN THE LONG PAST, SO IN ALL THE FUTURE 
THIS TRACT OF LAND SHALL BEAR THE NAME 

OF "George's Hill," and bearing it, shall 

BE a perpetual MEMORIAL OF THE HONORED 
grantors' NAME. 



Among the first and the most grateful of all the acquisitions by the 
Commissioners was this fine tract of ground. Soon after they began their 
labors' they received a letter from Jesse George, an aged and estimable 
member of the Society of Friends, who with his sister^ were then its joint 
owners. 

In the letter Jesse George stated that this property had been the unin- 
terrupted home of his ancestors for many generations, and had retained 
very much the appearance it bore from the first settlement of the country. 
That, with a view of preserving it to their memory in the same rural 
condition in which they occupied it, he had declined all offers to sell; 
but that considering the benefits of a public Park, and that a disposition 
of the property by him for that purpose would carry out his wishes for its 



' See First Annual Report of Commission. 



2 Since deceased. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



55 



preservation, he offered it to his fellow-citizens as a contribution to their 
pleasure-ground. Rebecca George joined with him in the same offer. 

The Commissioners accepted this generous gift, reserving for these 
estimable persons, at their request, the undisturbed enjoyment during 
their lives of the water of a little brook which runs along the foot of the 
hill. 

The tract comprises eighty-three acres. An oval concourse two hun- 
dred feet in diameter crowns its summit, which is two hundred and ten 
feet above the river. 

The Commissioners have erected there a commodious and tasteful 
music-stand and surrounded it by beds of flowers. A flag floats from the 
hill, visible from the principal parts of the Park. Under it a fountain of 
cold spring-water, artificially forced up from "the brook," constantly 
flows. The view from this concourse is a very commanding one. The 
background is shut in by a wood; but looking southward and westward, 
the hill descends gradually and widens to a broad open reach of green- 
sward with trees — in clumps, separate, and in pieces of woodland — the 
remains of the primeval forests. Farther on, in the middle-ground of 
this fair landscape, ribboned through with floating lines of vapor from 
passing trains, flows the clear, broad Schuylkill — spanned with its bridges, 
dotted with pleasure steamers and the gay pennons of the navy barges. 
Beyond are wooded slopes and green open spaces; from them the eye 
wanders over the city's long-extending streets, spires, and domes, amid 
which rise in pure whiteness the pillars of the College. Farther yet, 
beyond these spires, these domes, these pillars, the eye defines the city's 
boundaries and the horizon's verge, and along this line, in a clear atmo- 
sphere, the sails of vessels on the river Delaware. 

On fine afternoons this Hill is the grand centre for carriages ; the whole 
summit is crowned with equestrians and pedestrians, carriages, rich dresses 



56 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

and gay liveries. The animation of the scene, heightened by inspiriting 
strains of music, by the sense of health and enjoyment which breathes 
about the place, and, most of all, by its grateful memory, renders it to 
visitors one of the most attractive portions of the Park. 

THE BELMONT RESERVOIR 

adjoins George's Hill. It is supplied from the Belmont Works, on tlie 
margin of the river below. Its capacity is 35,800,000 gallons. The 
water-level, when full, is two hundred and twelve feet above the city 
datum. The arrangement by which the water passes from the main pipe 
into the basin is quite novel, and repays the short walk over from the 
Hill. There is also a very fine view from its east side of the city, and 
surrounding Park grounds on both sides of the river. 



From George's Hill, the main carriage road leaves the reservoir on the 
right, and passes over a high plateau to Belmont. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



57 




BELMONT. 

On this place,' twenty-five years ago, was still standing what Downing 
describes as the grandest avenue of hemlocks in America. These trees 
were centenarians in the perfection of their growth, ninety feet high, some 
draped with immense masses of English ivy. This long and stately 
avenue extended from the mansion to a road beyond the Belmont Avenue, 
and was there terminated by an obelisk. Many of these hemlocks yet 
remain. The garden walks were finished with box and privet, the beds 
set with rare shrubs and flowers, and the grounds adorned with vases and 
statues. The mansion, which is described by Chastellux (1780) as "a 



' The grounds at their highest elevation, on this estate, are two hundred and forty-three 
feet above tide-water. 



58 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

tasty little box, in the most charming spot nature could embellish," 
remains with little alteration, and is a very excellent specimen of the 
houses of that early period. Its principal characteristics are a broad hall 
and small dormitories, small window-glass and heavy sashes, highly 
ornamented and high wooden mantel-pieces, a comfortable dining-room, 
and open fireplaces. One of these in the hall is still used; the panel 
over it formerly held a landscape ; the coat of arms of the family remains 
perfect on the ceiling. Other ornamental devices about the mansion are 
recognizable as belonging to that early period. The roof has been 
raised ; the third story and piazza are modern. A library, which adjoined 
the main house, has also been removed since the Judge's time. The 
date of the erection of the main out-building is fixed by a monogram, 
T. W. P. 1745, cut on a slab set in the wall. There was a chestnut-tree 
near this mansion, planted by Washington, known as the Washington 
tree,* and an object of great interest in former times. There is still stand- 
ing there a white walnut, which was planted by Lafayette, on his visit 
here as the nation's guest, in 1824. 

1 Washington and Judge Peters proposed walking one afternoon. When a few steps 
from the back hall-door of the mansion, the Judge handed the General a large chestnut 
(a Spanish nut). Washington suggested planting it; thereupon the Judge, who carried a 
cane (Washington never carried a cane), made a hole with it in the ground, Washington 
dropped the nut, the Judge earthed it over. The shoot from it was watched and tended 
with care ; it grew to be a large tree, and bore nuts of extraordinary size. This tree 
stood on the right hand, a few steps outside the hall-door. The two trees near the dining- 
room are its lineal descendants. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



59 




The view from the hall-door of the mansion is worth a journey across 
the continent — it is one uninterrupted and slowly descending vista to the 
river, greensward, woodland and water, sunlight and shadow, holding and 
never wearying the gaze. It is a very general resort during the spring 
and summer months, the rendezvous of a gay throng of carriages, and 
visitors by cars and boat. It is attractive at all seasons; spring gives it 
an exquisite freshness and beauty; the changing leaves of autumn display 
there a season which belongs, in its perfection, only to our country; and 
winter, when a heavy snow has fallen, or a sleeting night been succeeded 
by a clear, bright morning, discloses a scene fairy-like and indescribable; 
but early summer mornings and afternoons it is the most enjoyable. What 



6o FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

Charles the Emperor said of the city of Florence, may well be said here, 
"It is too pleasant to be looked upon, but only on holidays." 

A singular scene was witnessed by the visitors to these grounds last summer (1870). 
Near the mansion was found sitting a group of savages, twelve in number, in their native 
costumes. They smoked thdr calumets with satisfaction, and looked on the river and 
the hills, the old hunting-grounds of their forefathers, probably with regret, if regrets be 
possible for their nature. They were from Dacotah — one was Red Wing — they were 
braves and warriors, and had been to see the Great Father at Washington, and were on 
their journey back to the land of the setting sun. 



JUDGE RICHARD PETERS. 

" I, who was an humble laborer in planting the vineyard, rejoice in having lived to 
see the exuberant vintage it has produced." — Judge Peters' s Letter to A. Garden, 182 1. 

Richard Peters, the beloved friend of Washington, was born m this 
mansion, and died here August 22, 1828, at the age of eighty-four. He 
was the son of William Peters, and the nephew of Richard Peters, Secre- 
tary of the Land Office under the Penns. The father and son in the 
Revolution severed in their opinions. The father adhered to the crown, 
returned to and died in England. Judge Peters at the outset ignored 
social, family, and business relations, assumed and adhered to the cause 
of the colonies. He was born in the den of the British lion, and in 
a good-humored manner bearded him there. 

Judge Peters filled the office of Secretary of the Board of War during the 
Revolution ; was a Representative in Congress, and had, at the time of his 
death, sat as a Judge of the United States District Court thirty-nine years. 
He was not alone distinguished as a patriot, a legislator, and a jurist, but 
in the department of agriculture he was the pioneer in those improve- 
ments which restored the wasting farm lands of this State. He sang the 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 6 1 

best song,^ grave or gay, was the most noted wit of his times, and was 
also the most genial and hospitable of men, 

' This fragment of a song in his clear handwriting lies before me ; it was written at a 
meeting of the St. George's Society, September 28, 1774: — 

When Britain first, by Heaven's command, 

Arose from out the azure main. 
This was the charter of the land. 

And guardian angels sang this strain ; 
Rule, Britannia, rule the waves, 
Britons never will be slaves. 

Let us, your sons, by freedom warmed. 

Your own example keep in view ; 
'Gainst tyranny be ever armed, 
Tho' we our tyrants find — in you. 

Rule, Britannia, rule the waves. 
But never make your children slaves. 

With justice and with wisdom reign. 
We then with thee will firmly join 
To make thee mistress of the main, 
And all the shore it circles thine. 

Rule, Britannia, rule the waves, 

We 're subjects still, but not your slaves. 

A portion of the Judge's song of the Treaty Tree may be also appropriately quoted 
here : — 

Whilst the natives our forests in freedom shall roam, 
Thy remembrance they '11 cherish through ages to come. 
Tho' sorrows their bosoms should oft overwhelm. 
With delight they '11 reflect on good Ones' s Elm. 

For that patron of justice and peace there displayed 
His most welcome good tidings, beneath its fair shade. 



62 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

And furnished examples to all future times, 
That Justice and Peace may inhabit all climes. 

The Oak may be fam'd for its uses in war. 

Or wafting wealth's idols to regions afar ; 

But the Elm bears no part in such objects as these, 

Its employment is solely in fabrics of peace. 

The Olive abounds where stern despots bear rule, 
And their slaves pluck its products in Poverty's school ; 
But the Elm delights most in the mountains and dells, 
Where Man is ne'er shackled, and Liberty dwells. 

Tho' time has devoted our tree to decay. 

The sage lessons it witness'd survive to our day, 

May our trustworthy statesmen, when called to the helm. 

Ne'er forget the wise Treaty held under our Ebn. 

Many anecdotes of Judge Peters are preserved in the manuscript of his biographer. 
They were a constant glimmer on the full deep flow of his earnest, enduring life. On the 
occasion of a brewer's death, when a dull man expressed surprise to the Judge because 
the brewer seemed to have been in good health : True, he was, said the Judge, a stottt 
man. What could then have carried him off? said the dull questioner. Something aled 
him, and the beer carried him off, said the Judge. Ah ! said the questioner: I did not 
know he drank. Nor did I, either, said the Judge, slowly shaking-his head and walk- 
ing away. 

When the Judge's health began to fail, a report of his death got into circulation and 
produced general sorrow. He was riding, and was met by a stranger, who told him the 
sad news. Well, said the Judge to the astonished man, I, for one, am very glad to hear 
it. I have lived very long, but I never thought I 'd live long enough to hear that that 
man was dead. 

In his 76th year, dining with the Cincinnati Society, he saw that, of the 300 original 
members, but 40 remained. I am the oldest survivor, he said, cheerfully, and as this is 
a military association which places the senior officer in the rear of the procession, I shall 
take my place there, and so see you all out, and reach the dismal goal last. Seeing Smith, 
who had become entirely bald, he said : Smith, you must be a very happy man. Why, 
said Smith, innocently. Because, said he, Smith, there's not a hair between your head 
and heaven. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



(>^ 



Among the guests of Judge Peters assembled in this mansion were 
the Chevalier de la Luzerne, the French Minister, whose house was at 
the Falls, Franklin, "Christian Samuel," Rittenhouse the astronomer, 
Bartram, President Wharton, and distinguished men of science from 
Europe. Lafayette, while in Philadelphia, on his return to this country 
as the nation's guest in 1824, was constantly with the Judge, and passed 
much of his time at this house. The Baron de Steuben,^ Inspector- 
General during the Revolution, was on relations of much intimacy with 
the Judge, and, whenever he was in Philadelphia, visited his house. Here 
also Talleyrand and Louis Philippe were received. Robert Morris, 
the Count de Survilliers, John Penn the governor, Alexander J. Dallas 
the advocate, whose house was near the Falls, John Adams, and, before 
all these, the author of the great Declaration,^ were his neighbors. 



* During Washington's administration, Thomas Jefferson lived below the Park limits 
at Gray's Ferry. He continued to reside there until he retired from public life in De- 
cember, 1793, and these fair shores witnessed an interview in those days of our transi- 
tion from monarchical ideas following the close of the Revolution, which shows the influ- 
ence Washington held even over this great man. Jefferson, then Secretary of State, had 
finally determined to resign his office; nor was it credited, so decided were the positions 
he had taken, that his determination was alterable. Washington, unbending from the 
place of his superior rank, visited him, and in a long interview (August 6th, 1793) beside 
these waters besought him to remain in the discharge of his office. Jefferson had then 
written to his life-long friend and companion Madison (June 9th, 1793), in a spirit of utter 
weariness of public affairs. " The motion of my blood," he said in this letter, " no longer 
keeps time with the turmoil of the world, my happiness lies in the lap and love of my 
family, in my books and in the society of my neighbors, in an interest and affection in 
every bud that opens and breath that blows around me. I am worn down with fruitless 
labor." To Washington he yielded. It is a pleasant recollection that this great instructor 
of his age, who so loved also the passing air and opening flower, had for that then worn- 
down spirit the relief of these fair scenes of nature, and that the scenes themselves are 
thus associated with his name and widening influence over our race. 



64 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

Washington's memory is the most sacred legacy of these fair 
grounds; the biographer of Judge Peters (the late Samuel Breck) writes: 
" Whenever a morning of leisure permitted that great man to drive to 
Belmont, it was his constant habit to do so ; in its beautiful gardens, 
beneath the shadows of the lofty hemlocks, he would sequester himself 
from the world, the cares and torments of business, and enjoy a recrea- 
tive and unceremonious intercourse with the Judge." 

On occasions of ceremony, however, at receptions and entertainments, 
Washington maintained surroundings of state in keeping with his time and 
military habitudes, although incongruous with these later days. The old 
shell of the royal era remained long after the soul and heart of the thing 
were gone. In the details of his household, also, he was very stately, and 
among all the equipages which rolled up to the door of Judge Peters' s 
mansion, his was the most decisive in its appointments. His coach, 
which is still in good preservation, was of a cream color, drawn by six 
horses of the old dominion stock. His motto was engraved on the har- 
ness plates ; his crest on the panels ; his postilions wore bright tasselled 
caps, and his coachman maintained a dignity and style in perfect keeping 
with the whole. 

He rode here also on the white charger which bore him in the Revo- 
lution, sometimes with attendants, sometimes alone. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



65 




Among the purposes entertained by the Commissieners, that to preserve 
and restore the mansions on these grounds is most approvable. All that 
helps to realize to us the days and actors of the Revolution is of much 
importance to our future. The narrow glass windows of this mansion 
are more precious to patriotic eyes than the broad plates of our era. 
The small rooms, with their low ceilings, and their open fireplaces, 
contending with wintry draughts, are more grateful to patriotic hearts 
than any lofty chambers of our present residences — for their occupants 
were the foremost men of our race, and their great work was for all time. 

We have made marvellous advances in all appliances for material 
grandeur and convenience. We have substituted for their stately equi- 
pages moving palaces on the water and on the land as much grander and 
more costly, as those were than the lumbering wains of the laborers of 
their times. We have overlaid by railroads, and broken down by battles, 
the narrow lines of the thirteen old sovereignties, extended their area 



6* 



66 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

across the continent, and unified them to a nation. We have advanced 
higher the standard of freedom, until no slave toils on our soil. But we 
have given no better type of the uses of wealth, than the Financier of 
the Colonies. We have reached no farther in our theories of government 
than the Author of the Declaration. And among all our millions, and all 
the world's millions, there has never been reproduced a man in the like- 
ness of the Leader of the Armies of the Revolution. 



From Belmont the main carriage road passes over grounds which em- 
brace unquestionably the most noble scenery in the Park. 

Leaving the Belmont Mansion, a thick wood, which borders on the 
Belmont Glen, extends for a short distance and shuts out the view to the 
eastward. 

Passing this, the whole open country at once bursts on the sight, 
broad and grand. The College comes again into view, looming against 
the sky, and the river lightens up the landscape with its mirror-like sur- 
face. Through this noble landscape you reach Chamouni. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



67 



1- 







VMkR ^.^sj,v „^n^^~A;s^^ ^M * ^ 



CHAMOUNI. 

This portion of the Park,^ unlike the rest, has no legendary or historic 
associations; but it requires none — as a natural throne, it asserts the 
authority of its position. 

In one field of view, it embraces the most distant sections of the city, 
widely separated villages, and still more widely separated ranges of 
country. 



' Originally, and quite as appropriately, named Mount Prospect. 



68 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

The Schuylkill lies under its mountain-like side, here a lake and there 
a winding river. The Park, in its whole extent to Fairmount, spreads 
map-like beneath it. The waters of the far Delaware show from it, mile 
after mile, on their long journey to the sea. Beyond, pine forests stretch 
away in the dim distance, and hang a dark fringe along the horizon. 

From the mansion* extends a grand panorama; for its background, 
rocky ranges, deep glens, and dark woodlands, villages, and farm-lands; 
and for its foreground, all the broad acres of this pleasure-ground, the 
spires and domes of the second city of the continent, and the great rivers 
which are its wealth and life-giving boundaries. 

But Chamouni has yet more to offer than this panorama; as if to leave 
nothing wanting in which it should challenge supremacy, on its summit, 
the one beside the other, stand three forest-trees, larger and more im- 
pressive than any others through the whole Park limits; one of these trees 
is a Black Walnut, another a Chestnut, the third a Tulip Poplar. 

These giant old trees, the relics and remembrancers of "the times which 
tried men's souls," stand there, nature's noblemen, granting favors and 
asking none. 

They have suggested the famous meeting of the three allied sovereigns 
in Hyde Park.^ But may they not better suggest the enduring compan- 
ionship of three other and nobler sovereigns — the Black Walnut, with its 
rich solid wood, Morris; the Chestnut, with its broad, liberal branches, 
Jefferson ; the Tulip Poplar, the noblest of all the forest-trees of America, 
Washington — the purse, the charter, and the sword of the Revolution; 
men who loved these grounds, strong men who stood together, in their 

• Built in 1802 by George Plumstead, a merchant of Pliiladelphia engaged in the India 
trade. 

* After Napoleon's fall. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 69 

day and generation, as these trees stand, changeless and mighty, in sun- 
shine and in storm. 

"... The great of earth, 
Great not by kingly birth, 
Great in their well proved worth — 
Firm hearts, and true." 



THE EAST BANK. 

This section of the Park will be opened to the public this summer. 
A proposed road will make it accessible from Fairmount by a con- 
tinuation of the present river road on the east bank, which will turn to 
the right after passing through the tunnel. 

The section is a series of estates — among others, Fountain Green, Mount 
Pleasant, Rockland, Belleville, Ormiston, Edgeley, Woodford, and the 
Strawberry Mansion ; they lie in successive tracts along the river, begin- 
ning below the Columbia Bridge and terminating at Laurel Hill. Its 
principal advantages over the west bank are more commanding views of the 
river and a more absolutely natural condition. The thickets remain, and 
a greater wealth of flowers in the woods and valleys. There is not an inch 
of frightful smoothness in the whole distance along the river bluff from 
the present entrance at Columbia Bridge to the Cemeteries. Among the 
many attractions of this section of the Park there are three : the first, a 
grand ravine ; the second, the splendid trees on the Rockland estate ; 
and the third, a broad view of the river, which, once seen, will never be 
forgotten by any true lover of nature ; nor should such a one fail to find 
the young tree which stands, like a tower solidly set on a rock, in that 



70 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



ravine, or the gnarled chestnut, near Laurel Hill. This section' contains 
two mansions of historic importance. The Woodford Mansion, situated 
on the Ridge Avenue, was built by William Coleman,^ the friend of 
Franklin. It was afterwards the residence of Daniel Franks, a gentle- 
man with large business connections in Philadelphia and New York 
during and after the Revolution. His son, Major Franks, was aid-de- 
camp to Arnold before his defection, but was himself a true patriot. 
His daughter. Miss Franks,^ was celebrated for her wit and beauty in 
the days of the republican court. It was also afterwards the residence 
of William Lewis, one of the most distinguished among the advocates 
of Philadelphia. 

The other of these mansions overlooks the river near the Columbia 
Bridge. 

' The lake reservoir to be located in this section will be one hundred and six acres in 
extent, with ninety acres of water surface, and will hold 750,000,000 gallons. 

' Erected 1742. 

' Miss Franks deserves to be remembered for her determined defences of her sister 
belles. In one of her letters she even says : '• The ladies of Philadelphia have more 
cleverness in a turn of the eye, than, the New York ladies in their whole composition." 




/ 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



71 




MOUNT PLEASANT. 



The stately mansion on this estate was built by John Macpherson, who 
was its owner from 1761 to 1779. William Macpherson, his son, was 
born in Philadelphia in 1756. He was at thirteen a cadet in the British 
army. While adjutant of the i6th Regiment in Florida, he tendered his 
resignation. On his return to New York, he obtained permission from 
Sir Henry Clinton to resign, declaring he would never serve against his 
countrymen. He joined the Continental army on the Hudson in 1779; 
was made a major by brevet, and stood high in the confidence of Wash- 
ington, He is famous as the organizer and commander of Macpherson's 
blues in the insurrection of 1794, and served under General Mifflin. 

The mansion passed from John Macpherson to Benedict Arnold 



7 2 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

(March, 1779), and through him, immediately afterwards, to trustees, as 
a marriage settlement for Mrs. Arnold, reserving to himself a life-estate. 
His defection took place the following year. It was followed by the for- 
feiture of his life-interest. The mansion then became the residence of 
General Von Steuben, known with us as the Baron Steuben. Of late 
years it has been the scene of many of those grand celebrations which 
distinguish the German Fatherland. 

Baron Steuben, whose residence here associates his name with this mansion, was a 
life-long soldier. 

As a boy, witnessing the Siege of Prague ; as a youth,.serving through the Seven Years' 
War, a member of the personal staff of Frederick the 'Great. He came here a veteran 
from his strict .school, and encouraged by that great King's sympathies with the cause 
of the Colonies. It is his enduring remembrance that he created the discipline of the 
American Army, and his alone. 

Unambitious of fame, he retired after the close of the war, and in the far wilderness, 
near Trenton Palls, lived and died. At his own request, he was buried there; desiring 
only that he should be wrapped in his military cloak, and that the then unbroken silence- 
of his burial-place should so remain. His name very honorably associates itself, on these 
grounds, with the many better remembered, but yet no more deserving of remembrance 
than this veteran disciplinarian. Through him the irregular bands of the Colonies 
became the armies of the Revolution. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



73 




THE RAVINES. 



The ravines in the Park on the west side of the river are consecutively 
named the "Sweet Brier," the *' Lansdowne," and the "Belmont" 
ravines, and Belmont Glen. 

In these ravines, nature has been left to her own better hands. There 
are no close-shaven, sloping mounds of greensward, no formal groups of 
flowers, nor any exotic set out orderly to be the unnatural companion of 
the sturdy survivors of the old forest. The result is, that these ravines 



74 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



are the most attractive places in the Park to real earnest lovers of nature. 
" Unkempt and wild, she reigns alone." 

They may be visited separately by leaving the carriage and joining it 
at the opposite side of the ravine, as can be very conveniently done at 
Lansdowne. But for the whole tour, a most healthful and enjoyable one, 
set out leisurely with a good pair of shoes and a quiet conscience, from 
the Lansdowne entrance. The bridle-path from this point keeps between 
the carriage road and the river for some distance, giving fine views. It 
joins the carriage road again at the railway bridge, but soon leaves it 
and passes in front of the mansion, entering there the first of these ravines. 



SWEET BRIER RAVINE. 

This ravine is attractive all the year round. It has a brook crossed 
by a bridge — 

" A hidden brook 

In the leafy month of June, 
That to the sleeping woods all night 
Singeth a quiet tune." 

The path descends to the bridge and rises from it by rustic steps, all in 
excellent keeping with the character of the way. On every side are wild 
flowers, shrubs, and large forest-trees, many covered with hanging vines. 
The path and road come out together at "the river road bridge." 
From this point it soon winds again, seeks the shade of the forest-trees 
nearer the river, passes under them through thickets of undergrowth, 
and so descends gradually to 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



THE LANSDOWNE RAVINE. 



75 



Large forest-trees stand in this ravine, without any order. Some in 
friendly groups, some in separate dignities ; some rise from the bottom 
of the ravine, some start boldly out from its steep sides ; all in a very 
irregular but not the less most unimprovable manner. 

A brook begins its little journey from a spring at the head of the 
ravine,^ in some places hides itself under sprays of ferns, in others 
trickles and drops down broken ledges, and makes tiny mirrors over 
smooth-worn stones ; all along its way hang drooping vines. It is a very 
unpretentious little brook, but, to eyes that see clearly, it is very attractive. 

Crossing this brook, the path, by a miniature Alpine zigzag with rustic 
seats, reaches the Lansdowne concourse. 

Leaving the concourse, it passes along the lawn, giving a broad view of 
the river on the right hand and the Lansdowne tract on the left, and so 
enters 

THE BELMONT VALLEY. 

The path here turns at a point which gives a view of the river looking 
northward, and ascends a bluff close to a precipice formed by a quarry, 
and descends along the side of the ravine. 

The whole character of this ravine is wild and tangled with vines, 
ferns, trees, and wild flowers. It is a charming retreat for a summer 
morning or afternoon with books and leisure. 

Leaving the ravine, the path joins the main carriage way, and another 
path on the opposite side continues on towards George's Hill and Bel- 
mont. 

' There is a fine grove of the AngeHca or Hercules chib at the head of this ravine. 



•j6 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

At Belmont, opposite the front of the mansion a guide-board indicates 
a path to the river through 

BELMONT GLEN. 

This path is the most frequented in the Park ; it descends by an easy 
grade to the Belmont Station on the Reading Railroad, and follows part 
of the way the course of a brook. It is shaded by forest-trees and vines, 
except where, in two places, it opens out for short distances to the sun- 
light, to which the grateful shadow quickly succeeds. The path crosses a 
rustic bridge half-way between the station and the mansion, and is good 
at all seasons. 

There are, besides these, three other ravines on the west side of the 
river, one above Belmont, the second near Chamouni, descending to the 
river, and the third also near Chamouni, descending west. These have 
as yet no defined pathway. On the east bank of the river there is a very 
romantic ravine on the Fountain Green grounds, and the grand ravine 
which descends to the river near Ormiston. 

All these ravines have springs of clear cold water. 



THE RIVER ROAD. 

In addition to the views afforded by the main carriage drive and the 
paths through the ravines, thei-e is also a road along the river margin. 
This road shows points as interesting as the others. On the east bank it 
diverges from the main carriage road in the plaza at Fairmount, passes 
the boat-houses, and under the two bridges through an artificial tunnel, 
whence it will extend to the Falls and Wissahickon. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



77 



On the west bank it connects with the main carriage drive at the bridge 
beyond Sweet Brier, and there passing under this road, descends to the 
river, and comes out at the foot of Lansdowne Valley. It passes first 

THE BELMONT WORKS. 

These works supply the reservoir at George's Hill, and are operated 
by steam. Their pumping capacity is 10,000,000 gallons per twenty- 
four hours. 



A SHORT distance beyond these works the road passes a low one- 
story cottage. 




.1* 



78 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




TOM MOORE'S COTTAGE. 

"Alone by the Schuylkill, a wanderer, I strayed." 
This cottage, with the two old trees, which in the lyric poet's time 
threw their grateful shadows over its low roof and humble door, are well 
stricken in years. The vine, which one of these trees has lifted into sun- 
shme, still clings round it; but the old tree itself every spring-time buds 
forth more feebly its leaves, and will soon be gone. These fair Schuylkill 
banks were to Moore, as to others whose troubles were more real than 
those which ordinarily afflict the poet's over-sensitive existence, a -re- 
treat so fair," as he has written— 

"That his charmed soul forgot its wish to roam, 
And rested there as in a dream of home." 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



79 



He has left tributes of his genius to these scenes, and composed while 
among them^ the sweetest of his ballads — 

" I knew by the smoke that so gracefully curled 
Across the green elms, that a cottage was near, 
And I said if there 's peace to be found in this world, 
A heart that is humble might hope for it here." 

It is a pleasant thing in this poet's memory, that these fair shores, then 
the abode of wild flowers and merry warblers, an undisturbed tranquillity 
of shade, should have been after so long a period, and after many rude 
invasions of trade, restored again to the natural condition in which he 
knew and loved them.^ 




After leaving the cottage, the road shaded by an avenue of trees ex- 
tends for nearly a mile ; it passes under the Railroad Bridge, and termi- 
nates at the Falls Bridge f crossing which, we reach 

• 1804 

2 Celebrations in honor of Moore were formerly given in this cottage ; of a characteristic 
one of these, there is a notice in the Press of June 11, 1858. 

' The nearer of the bridges in the picture, on page 80, is the Railroad Bridge, the 
farther the Falls Bridge. 



So 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




THE FALLS OF SCHUYLKILL. 



The Falls, a name now applied to a village, was in former days the 
name of a natural cascade. A long rock projected from the foot of a hill 
at this point, and extended two-thirds the distance across the river, form- 
ing a dam. In the spring the water poured over it in a beautiful cascade; 
at other seasons it forced the river into a narrow channel, on the western 
side, with turbulence and great rapidity; the sound could be heard on 
still evenings a distance of several miles. The rock itself was character- 
ized by singular indentations, caused probably by ages of attrition ; among 
them was the apparent impression of a human foot, showing the heel, the 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 8l 

hollow of the instep, the ball of the foot, and toes; it bore name the 
Devil's foot. It was believed to be an evidence of his real presence here. 
Time has made great changes in this place; factories have taken the place 
of fishermen's houses, paved streets of forest pathways, and the irregular 
and foam-bearded cascade, which gave the place its name, has yielded 
its inheritance to its smooth-faced younger brother, the steady-going 
mechanic at Fairmount. Tradition says this was the last place about 
Philadelphia deserted by the Indians. That it must have been much re- 
sorted to by them is proved by the fact that very numerous Indian relics 
have been and are still found here — stone axes, arrow-heads, and other 
instruments. As late as 1817 it was a famous fishing-place for shad,* 
perch, rock, and a migratory species of catfish, which came regularly 
about the 25th of May in numbers so numerous as to blacken the narrow 
passages of the river.* They were caught, upon the authority of eye- 

' These were preserved by smoking, and were in great request in the winter. Our 
wise Founder did much belove them in this way, " Pray send us," he writes to his steward 
from Penn's Manor — "pray send us some two or three smoaked haunches of venizon; 
get them from the Swedes : also some smoaked shadds and beef — the old Priest at Phila- 
delphia had rare shaddsP 

2 This fish-story, unlike many others, is reliable, and within well-authenticated limits. 
Old John Holmes confirms it in this wise : — 

" We plenty have of many sorts of fish, 
As choice and good as any man could wish; 
Eels, rockfish, trout, shad, herring, perch, and pike. 
So plenty that I never saw the like." 

The contests between the fishermen and the canoe-men, who traded on the river about 
1722-32, were the subject of legislative action. The depositions of many canoe-men are 
in the archives of Pennsylvania (1732); among them, one Jonah Jones "Saith that in the 
month of February, it being extreme cold, he stroke fast on a fish-dam, and, to save his 
boat of wheat, was obliged to leap into ye river to ye middle of his body — afterwards pro- 
ceeding with ye said wet clothes, they were frozen stiff on his back, by means whereof he 
underwent a great deal of misery." The first law passed by the State of Pennsylvania 
was an act to make this river navigable, and for the preservation of its fish. 



82 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

witnesses, in nets often so full that the fishermen were unable to lift them 
into their boats. Shad were caught by dipping-nets; as many as could be 
raised by the hand were frequently taken at one time; a thousand of 
these fish have been taken there in those days in two sweeps of the seine. 
Of rockfish, from thirty to eighty pounds were taken during a morning. 
The hotels at this point were then the most popular places of resort^ 
about the environs of Philadelphia, and are still much visited. 



Back from the Falls, on an eminence on the east side of the Ridge 
Road, stands the former residence of Governor Mifflin. The house is a 
noticeable object in this vicinity. 

THOMAS MIFFLIN. 

Thomas Mifflin was a member of the Society of Friends. When the 
news of the battle of Lexington reached Philadelphia, he immediately 
assumed the cause of the Colonies. He was the youngest and most 
effective speaker who addressed the people on that occasion, and left 
immediately after for Boston, and there joined the army. Although his 
name has got mislaid among their records there, he yet, by his cool and 

1 Those ancient hotels, one of which was named in tlie old days Rock Fish Inn, 
still furnish regular meals — breakfast, dinner, and supper — having, except by special order, 
the same bill of fare as they served before the Revolution, and orderable always as " cat- 
fish and coffee." The bill of fare is catfish, beefsteak, broiled chicken, waffles, and coffee. 

These catfish are, like their progenitors, a distinct fish from those which bear their name 
on the Delaware, and other rivers of this country; and, unlike them, are delicate in flavor 
and exceedingly good. These suppers are peculiar to Philadelphia. The fish are kept 
alive, winter and summer, in large covered boxes, through which fresh spring-water con- 
stantly runs. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



83 



intrepid conduct, much aided to establish the military reputation of that 
section of our country. He was engaged subsequently at the battle of 
Princeton, and his portrait is preserved in Trumbull's picture. He was 
the first Governor of Pennsylvania under the new constitution. 

On the same side of the road, until a recent period, stood an octagon 
building once occupied as a school-house ; its master was Joseph Neef, 
a pupil of Pestalozzi, of Switzerland. 



JOSEPH NEEF. 

" The Jolly old Pedagogue long ago." 

For the school-children with whom once a year the city passes a day 
of unalloyed pleasure on these grounds, we wish to keep the memory 
green, of a man who taught school in this section of the Park, and in the 
octagon house. 

He first brought school-children to the Park, and was himself all his 
life-long only one of these of larger growth. 

And of all men who ever taught school, he was the best beloved by his 
scholars. He read the rules laid down by Solomon, backwards — spared 
the children and spoiled the rods. He built the Temple of Science at 
the foot of the hill, and made it as easy to get there as to coast on 
sleds in winter-time. He was out of doors with- the boys all summer ; 
never had a hat on his head nor a cent in his pocket ; never got tired 
running up and down the hills ; was the best swimmer and the best skater, 
and his boys the best swimmers and the best skaters in the whole neigh- 
borhood ; he never had a book in his school, and could whistle through 
his fingers like a steam-whistle. 



84 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

The old octagon house was full from the garret to the cellar of boys 
of all kmds, sizes, and dispositions, and everything was as pleasant in 
the school as if it had been " home in the holidays," and for many boys 
a great deal pleasanter. But what was best of all in that school, the 
smart boys grew smarter and the dull boys grew brighter, so that at last 
when a great prodigy^ who had been born with his head full of figures, 
came there to puzzle them, they gave him harder puzzlers in return, and 
when he grew angry and struck out boldly with a switch which he carried, 
they doubled up hands and whipped him, and the old man laughed all 
the while. So here is to the memory of "the Jolly old Pedagogue" 
who first brought into this country the system of Pestalozzi^ which revo- 
lutionized and humanized education, and the good influence of which is 
felt to this hour in all the common schools of America. 



' Zerah Colborn. 

2 We are indebted to Mr. William McClure, the philosopher who endowed the 
Academy of Natural Sciences, for his sojourn and its good, results here. He met him 
in Switzerland, and induced him to return with him to be his Master's Apostle in the 
New World. — Hagner^s Sketch of the Falls. 



mm 



^ 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



85 




FORT ST. DAVIDS. 



Fort St. Davids was a rude but strong structure of heavy timber, cut 
from the opposite forests and erected long anterior to the Revolution. 
It was located at the foot of a hill, from which the rock forming the falls 
projected. On the hill a tall flagstaff was erected, from which floated King 
George's flag. In the interior hung a picture of his majesty and Queen 
Charlotte, and of Hendrick, King of the Mohawks. The room was 
decorated with an immense hat four feet in width, and other parapher- 
nalia, dried fish, turtles, and Indian curiosities; a large bowl of **the 
great Mr. Pitt," wineglasses and decanters of curious workmanship, and 
a set of china with the Schuylkill arms. The company had also a flag 
on which were a moon, a fish, and a crown. 



86 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

The Society of Fort St. Davids, the builders of this house and its gas- 
tronomic garrison, were companions of the Founder, and, like the former 
catfish of this stream, were accredited as a superior species ; but, like those 
steadfast fishermen below, they had immense good times on all suitable 
occasions, and they never failed to make all unsuitable occasions suitable. 
They ultimately voyaged down the stream' to their brothers, then at the 
Baron Warner's, with whom they still dwell in indissoluble connection, 
capacious^ both for good-humor and for fish. This garrison, during the 
Revolution, has a very noble record, in which good-humor was laid 
aside and its whole duty to the country sternly and fully done. 



JOHN DICKINSON. 

Among the names on the rolls of this Society is John Dickinson, the 
Author of "the Farmer's Letters." 

This "shadow," rather than man, " slender as a reed, pale as ashes,"' 
this great writer, has been suffered to lapse almost into oblivion, yet it 
was in him God first lighted the fires of the Revolution. His letters 
made the cause of the Colonies heard before the throne of Great Britain, 
and it is his name only which is associated with Jefferson's as the writer 



' Their house, in revenge for the part they took in the Revolution, was reduced to a 
heap of ruins by Hessian soldiers, who were quartered near Rock Fish Inn, under Gen. 
Kniphausen. They remained here some time after the Revolution, and rebuilt their 
house. The print represents the second house ; it was destroyed by an accidental fire. 

^ Godfrey Schronk, a noted fisherman, assured John Watson, the chronicler, that the 
small garrison at Fort St. Davids cooked and put away often forty dozen catfish at a 
meal. At the house at Gray's Ferry, a notice of catches (1S30) averages to one fisherman 
from five to twenty dozen white perch, and the aggregate catches, before their removal 
from the Baron Warner's, on fishing-days, ran fifty, eighty, and one hundred dozen. 

■* John A<lams's description of Mr. Dickinson. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 3- 

of the first official assertion of grievances which preceded the great Dec- 
laration. His words were the battle-cries of the Revolution. On these 
grounds they gave evidence of their power; although gentle blood ran 
in the veins of the peaceful inmates of Fort St. Davids, and their meats 
were set before them on heraldic plates, and the flag of English George 
floated over their house, yet Dickinson's words swept through its hewn 
logs like a storm ; the flag went down — they answered his appeal with 
the sword. Here he might be fitly honored, as he was in his day and 
generation. The historic troop,* four of whose captains have been 
Governors of the State in Schuylkill, and the bar of Philadelphia, of 
which he was so worthy a representative, might unite and place on 
these grounds his monumental stone ; and the words once written in his 
honor might well be graven there. 

Pro Patria 
John Dickinson 

t)F THE 

City of Philadelphia. 

The Author of the Farmer's Letters. 

Ita cuique eveniat 

Ut de Republica meruit. 

■ The First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry. 




gg FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Leaving the Falls, and passing along the Ridge Road for the distance 
of three-quarters of a mile, we reach the mouth of the Wissahickon, 
marked by a high bridge, under which, crossing the stream, the road 
passes over 

THE BATTLE GROUND. 

The Ridge Road, from its intersection with Thirty-third Street to the 
south line of Laurel Hill, as also here, forms one of the boundaries of 
the portion of the Park lying on the east bank of the Schuylkill. Long 
before the Revolutionary War it was one of the principal roads leading 

from the city. 

While the British under General Howe occupied Philadelphia, the sur- 
rounding country was open to their incursions through this road. To 
check them, Washington, from his camp at Valley Forge, ordered two 
thousand two hundred men, under the command of Lafayette, to make a 
sortie; and if, as then appeared probable, the British should evacuate the 
city, to hang upon and harass their rear-guard. Lafayette took a posi- 
tion at Barren Hill, on the Schuylkill, just above the upper boundary of 
the Park, and about ten miles from Washington's camp at Valley Forge. 
Howe determined to attack him without delay. On the morning of the 
20th May, 1778, a detachment of five thousand men under General Grant, 
marching by a circuitous road, succeeded in turning Lafayette's left 
wing, and established itself nearly a mile in the rear of his position; 
another detachment, under General Gray, followed this road along the 
Schuylkill; the rest encamped at Chestnut Hill. These movements 
were discovered during the night by Captain McClane, a vigilant partisan 
officer, who hastened to the camp of Lafayette and apprised him of his 
danger. With great promptitude the General took the only course to pre- 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 89 

serve his detachment. With a few men he showed a head of column as 
though moving on Grant to attack him, while, by a rapid movement of 
the flank, his principal column crossed at Matson's Ford to the opposite 
bank of the river. Grant, finding them advantageously posted, did not 
choose to attack them; and his whole army returned to the city, having 
effected nothing. It was to this incident of the war that Lafayette 
alluded while partaking of the hospitalities of the ancient and honorable 
fishermen. 

As a memento of the gratitude of the country for the services which he 
had rendered. Congress directed that a sword should be presented to 
him. It was prepared in France, under the supervision of Franklin. 
On the guard was engraved, among other memorable events in which 
Lafayette was distinguished by his prudence or his courage, "Retreat of 
Barren Hill." On transmitting the sword to Lafayette, Franklin ad- 
dressed to him the following letter: — 

To THE Marquis of Lafayette. 

Passy, August 24, 1779. 
Sir: The Congress, sensible of your merit towards the United States, 
but unable adequately to reward it, determined -to present you with a 
sword as a small mark of their grateful acknowledgments. They directed 
it to be ornamented with suitable devices. Some of the principal actions 
of the war, in which you distinguished yourself by your bravery and con- 
duct, are therefore represented upon it. These, with a few emblematic 
figures, all admirably well executed, make its principal value. By help 
of the exquisite artists France affords, I find it easy to express everything 
but the sense we have of your worth, and our obligations to you. I 
therefore only add, that, with the most perfect esteem, I have the honor 
to be, &c. 



oo FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

In this section of the Park also was fought a portion of the memorable 
Battle of Germantown; the British line of redoubts extended back of the 
Wissahickon Creek, along the east side, for a distance of two miles. 
During the battle the Americans occupied the hills, and until recently the 
remains of their temporary redoubts were visible, extending along the 
west side in a semicircle, a considerable distance.^ 

In building the Railroad Bridge which crosses here, these old land- 
marks were destroyed. A monumental shaft, at Roxborough,^ com- 
memorates some Virginia soldiers slain a short distance above this spot. 
Soldiers of other colonies moulder in the earth that lies between these 
sections of the Park. 

' General Armstrong, the Commander of the Pennsylvania Militia, wrote to President 
Wharton (October 5, 1777), "We cannonaded from the heights on each side the Wissa- 
hickon, whilst the riflemen on opposite sides acted on the lower ground;" and, again, 
" One field-piece we got away, the other I was obliged to leave in the horrendnous hills of 
the Wissahickon." 

2 In the Leverington Cemetery. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



91 




THE WISSAHICKON. 

This romantic stream, which still retains its Indian name,^ lies between 
ranges of precipitous hills. 



92 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Self-guarded by these rock battlements/ it retains that primeval char- 
acter in which let us hope it will be always preserved. Along its banks 
through its whole extent, trees and vines hang down to the water's edge, 
and frequent springs drip from the rocks. Except at times in the spring 
and autumn when swollen with heavy rains, its waters have in many 
places scarcely a perceptible motion ; it seems to be the bosom of a 
lake. Its unbroken quiet, its dense woodland, its pine-crowned hills, 
its sunless recesses, and sense of separation from the outer world, con- 
trast strongly with the broad lawns, the open flowing river, and the 
bright sunshine which characterize the banks of the Schuylkill. 

It is a chosen spot for youth and for old age, for all those whom simple 
love of nature contents ; and it has been the home of romance, the 
theme of song, the source of illusions and of legends accredited in 
places not always obscure, from the earliest times to our own days. 



' Until 1826 the Wissahickon was inaccessible except by by-roads and lanes. At the 
Ridge Road a mass of rock stood on one side and a precipice on the other. During 
that year the rock was removed, and the present road begim. 

Until 1822 it emptied into the Schuylkill over a very picturesque fall of water, ten or 
twelve feet high. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



93 




Passing along the margin of the Wissahickon, the main carriage drive 
reaches first, 

WISSAHICKON HALL. 

At this saloon, which is a place of considerable resort, refreshments 
and ices are sold during the summer, and "catfish and coffee" at all 
seasons. 



A SHORT distance further on, the road passes a second restaurant. 



THE MAPLE SPRING. 

The restaurant which hears this name contains a collection of very gro- 
tesque figures of animals, birds, beasts, and serpents ; these are all the 



g^ FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

uncut roots of the laurel, found in these forms in the earth. They are 
the labor of the proprietor's lifetime in the forests of this State. 

Bateaux may be obtained at this restaurant, as also at the lower one, by 
the hour or for the afternoon or day, for excursions. The west bank of 
the stream at these points is most conveniently reached by this mode of 
conveyance. 



A QUARTER of a mile further, the road reaches 

THE LOG CABIN. 

At this place there is a rude congregation of animals, the nucleus it 
may be of some future zoological society.' Among them are serpents, 
buffaloes, monkeys, and the great American eagle ; the most remarkable 
among the animals are two learned bears, ingenious, temperate, orderly, 
and yet miserable. 

' The Zoological Society of Philadelphia was incoi-porated the 2ist day of March, 
1859, and it is authorized by the act to occupy such parts or portions of Fairmount 
Park as shall be necessary ior the making, maintaining, and exhibiting collections of 
animals. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



95 




THE HERMIT'S WELL 



Is outside the Park limits ; it is reached by crossing a bridge above the 
Log Cabin, and passing along a lane which ascends through the woods. 
The well was dug by John Kelpius; the stonework yet remains. A 
venerable cedar, believed to have been planted by his hands, still throws 
its grateful shadows over it. 



96 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

JOHN KELPIUS. 

" My food shall be of care and sorrow made, 

My drink naught else but tears fallen from my eyes; 

And for my light in this obscure shade, 

The flames may serve which from my heart arise; 

And at my gates despair shall linger still, 
To let in death when love and fortune will." 

Among the stories of the former dwellers in this romantic region, and 
of which reliable record remains, that of John Kelpius' holds a remarkable 
place. A scholar and a mystic, he came from Germany with his followers 
towards the close of the seventeenth century. They located themselves 
on this stream and dwelt in religious meditation, awaiting with anxious 
prayers the coming of the " Woman of the Wilderness." 

Kelpius wore his young life away here, enduring to the end in patient 
expectation, fast and vigil, waiting morning and evening " the woman 
clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and the twelve stars 
on her forehead ; she who had fled into the wilderness. ' ' 



' According to the Chronicon Ephratense, 1786, Kelpius was from Siebenburgen, and 
was of a wealthy family. He studied at Helmstadt under Dr. Fabricius, and was versed 
in the languages. His companions were all men in easy circumstances (freyen standes), 
and settled on the Ridge, which at that time was a wilderness, whence they named them- 
selves "the woman in the wilderness." He died at the early age of thirty-five years, 
sitting in his garden, and attended by his followers weeping as for the loss of a father. 
The title of one of Kelpius's hymns reads: "Colloquium of the Soul with itself over 
her long during purification. Set in a pensive longing in the wilderness. Anno 1698, 
January 30." 

Bartram, in 1798, makes this characteristic allusion to Dr. Witt, the favorite scholar of 
Kelpius, then eighty-three years of age : " Poor old man, he was la'tely in my garden, 
but could not distinguish a leaf from a flower." He was buried, at his own request, at 
the feet of Kelpius. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



97 



Some of his followers, who were, afterwards known as the Hermits of 
the Ridge, fell away from the faith, others never woke from the strange 
delusion that brought them so long a journey. They also waited on in 
their caves among these rocks, with ever-renewing faith, the sign and visible 
presence, until, their weary limbs shrinking down and their eyes wearing 
out with watching, they died there, and the foxes made their burrows 
among their bones. 



A QUARTER of a mile above the Log Cabin, and also on the opposite 
bank of the stream, a short distance above the bridge which crosses to 
the Hermits' Lane, is a high bluff; it is a striking object from the car- 
riage road. The rock which rises from the bluff is called 

THE LOVER'S LEAP. 

The Lover's Leap overlooks from its crest a wild gorge. It is the 
scene of one of the numerous traditions which survive here. There is 
an illegible inscription in Latin, said to have been chiselled by Kelpius, 
on the face of the rock, and at various places around it aspiring Vandals 
have cut their initials. This rock stands two hundred feet above the 
surface of the stream. 



From the rock a deep glen or gorge follows the stream. 
9 



98 



i<AlRMUUNT PARK. 



THE HERMITS' GLEN. 



This glen was a favorite spot with the hermits, the scene of their 
wanderings. It presents some of the most striking natural features along 
the stream. Immense boulders of many tons weight lie on the hill-sides; 
and a short distance above the "Lover's Leap," another rock juts out 
to the length of twenty feet. One feels, after climbing to the crest of 
this rock and looking far down upon the sharp stones in the gorge peer- 
ing up through the holes and branches of undergrowing trees, not unlike 
the adventurer who crawls to the edge of Table Roc:k to look at Niagara. 



Following the main road a short distance further, a half mile in all 
above the Log Cabin, we reach, a bend in the stream. Here it is joined 
by a creek coming down from the north; this creek, Paper-mill Run, is 
scarcely less picturesque in places- than the Wissahickon. It joins the 
latter by a series of waterfalls. The lower of these has a perpendicular 
descent of about twenty feet over dark shale-like rocks. Near it stands 
the old house in which David Rittenhouse was born, and near its source 
the first paper-mill in America was erected by his ancestors in 1690. 

DAVID RITTENHOUSE. 

Kelpius had long gone to his rest, and Dr. Witt, his beloved scholar, 
almost blind with age and watching, was bending hopelessly over his 
grave, when David Rittenhouse raised his eyes also to the heavens, and 
with a stronger vision, by faith and by sight, penetrated their remote 
recesses. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 99 

David Rittenhouse, the astronomer, was of Holland ancestry ; he fol- 
lowed first the plough, but was found so often with the plough lying in the 
furrow, and the fence full of figures, that he lost that service, and took up 
the trade of a clockmaker. His first great work, among many others — 
marvellous in their time, constructed wholly at night, his idle hours as 
he called them — was the famous orrery now in Princeton College. His 
next was a series of calculations for the transit of Venus over the sun's 
disk. This wonderful mechanical contrivance, the universe in motion on 
a frame, and these accurate and profound calculations, and their verifica- 
tion by his own observation, gave him a wide-spread reputation in this 
country and in Europe. The life of David Rittenhouse was mainly con- 
nected with the world of science, and his fame there rests; but, yet, his 
mind was also an invaluable machine for the business uses of his genera- 
tion. 

He was State Treasurer from 1777 to 1789, afterwards Director of the 
Mint, and for many years President of the Philosophical Society. 

Of him Thomas Jefferson says: " We have supposed that Rittenhouse 
must be considered second to no astronomer living; as a genius first, 
because self-taught; as an artist, because he has exhibited as great a proof 
of mechanical skill as the world ever produced. He has not indeed made 
a world, but he has by imitation approached nearer his Maker than any 
mere man who has lived from the creation to these days." And this is 
further said, he gave no time to earn money beyond the most simple 
necessities of life, and although called to high offices, he had interest in 
them only as the performance of duties which were necessary for the well- 
being of his fellow-citizens. He lived — the first and most famous of that 
illustrious line through which America is rising to pre-eminence among 
the nations — a devotee of science ; he died a sincere believer in the 
Christian revelation. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Beyond these points, the road reaches a bridge, over which it crosses 
to the opposite bank of the stream — the Red Bridge. 



Beyond the bridge, half a mile further, on the opposite side of the 
stream, towers 



MOM. RINKLE'S ROCK. 

This is a precipice which begins at the stream's edge, and rises 
abruptly, a solid mass of rock, like a wall among the forest-trees. It has 
also its legendary story clinging around it; doled out around old firesides 
to credulous ears, while there were yet firesides and credulous natures. 

That a poor old woman, as the story says, lived there, is very possible; 
that she fell from this giddy precipice, seems most probable ; that she was 
a witch, drank dew from acorn cups, had the evil eye, and floated down 
the stream to the sea without sinking, is credible to witnesses only. Her 
name certainly survives, and adventurous boys, climbing this giddy 
height, shout it out to be called back to them from all the hills around, 
and so preserve it from generation to generation. 

The rock, with the exception, perhaps, of Indian rock, is the grandest 
monarch of them all, and should have a name and association more ap- 
propriate than this legendary one. To ascend to its summit from the 
stream is difficult, and requires care; crossing the first bridge this side 
the monastery, turning immediately to the right, and keeping a woods- 
path, which in the spring has a continuous border of violets, you reach a 
steep hill-slope through which the rock rises — a friendly tree-branch here 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. lOi 

and there to grasp, a few minutes' rest after passing some piece of ground 
which slips the foothold, enables you with a little exertion to reach its 
summit. The rock juts out along its crest in an almost level ridge ; it 
overlooks all the surrounding country ; the lofty tops of the pine-trees 
show far below ; yet further below, the dark recesses of thq stream and 
the old monastery. All around, remote and near, is nature alone ; city 
and town and busy haunts of men are all shut out by trees and hills and 
fields, the rock stands over all in solitude — and here, at sunset, when the 
always shadowy stream and dark pine-trees and deep recesses of the woods 
lie in a deeper shadow, this high rock stands lit with the golden light of 
the declining day, like a rich illumination on some missal's dark page — 
itself and all the scene a greater page of nature — an 

. " elder Scripture writ by God's own hand ; 
Scripture authentic, uncorrupt by man," 



A quarter of a mile further, 
two miles above the mouth of the stream, the road turns abruptly and 
continues on the same side, overhanging a precipitous chasm ; another 
road at this point leaves the Park road, descends to and crosses the stream 
by a bridge ; at the summit of the rise of the Park road, you see below : 
the bridge — a deep gorge — the stream abandoning its customary quiet, 
rolling, tumbling, and plashing over rocks — a mill in the gorge — and 
behind the mill a steep hill ; on its summit stands an oblong stone build- 
ing known for a century as 



9* 



102 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

THE MONASTERY. 

Some of the windows of this building have been closed up, but the 
three encircling cornices above each story, the durable character of its 
masonry, the tall chimney, and a sort of venerable expression which 
looks out from its rough faces, indicate that it is a landmark of a past 
generation. 

It was once used for a monastery. It stands upon high ground, but 
the tall ranges of hills tower high above it. A lane winds around the 
bend of the bluff and climbs up its steep side, forming in front of the 
house a semicircular lawn. In the valley below (''Willow Glen") 
there is a spot known as the Baptistery. Here the monks immersed their 
converts. The yard in the rear of the dwelling was used by them for 
the burial of their dead. Three steps of stone, rounded by the rains of 
years, lead to a sort of elevated plot encompassed by an old wall. Here 
the ritual was said, and the brothers chanted their burial-service. This 
building has stood there considerably over a century. Some accounts 
affirm that its inmates were of a Baptist order ; others, which have a 
documentary attestation, that they were mystics, whose followers in man- 
ners and custom are still scattered along the region of Ephrata. Men 
certainly they were who came down close to nature, to the earth, and 
solitude, and sought out from the silence of desert places, however vainly, 
a pathway to the Light Illimitable. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



103 




The scenery at this point is very attractive. The suggestive old build- 
ing ; the trees along the hill-side set on rocks instead of natural soil ; 
the road itself perched high above the chasm ; the roaring and tumbling 
of the waters below as you ascend the hill ; the change to silence as the 
carriage rolls along through a dense environing of forest-trees — are all 
impressive in a very remarkable degree. 



A MILE further (three miles from the mouth of the WIssahickon), on 
the west bank, are certain caves, interesting to the antiquary. 



jQ. ■ FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



THE CAVES. 



The caves are situated in a lovely valley formed by the junction of a 
small stream with the Wissahickon. The most remarkable of them is 
referable to a certain period. It was excavated by miners led to the 
work by visions and witch-hazels indicating treasures there. Over it the 
rocks are about eighteen or twenty feet high, and much broken. Large 
forest-trees are growing on the summit. The cave or excavation extends 
into the solid rock thirty feet. It is five feet high, and five and a half 
wide ; at the back part a man can stand erect. Fifty years after it had 
been closed, a venturous antiquary succeeded in getting under the huge 
root of a buttonwood which had grown across its mouth, and threaded 
its dark and narrow passages. He there witnessed the useless labors of the 
men in whose imaginations heaps of glittering gold had lain, luring them 
on to waste the best years of their lives, and, in a certain sense, to dig 
their own graves. The others of these caves are natural, have legend- 
ary histories traceable to no certain origins, perhaps holes for the bears 
and foxes, the resorts possibly of Indians; it may be Logan's wild Irish 
hound made in them his home. 



A SHORT distance beyond (three and a half miles from its mouth), a 
bridge crosses the stream at one of the most striking pieces of landscape 
along this whole section of the Park. As you approach this bridge, on 
the opposite shore, in early spring, winter, and autumn, there is a strange 
effect of deciduous trees among evergreens ; skeletons, as Dor^ would 
draw them, rising up along the verdure-crowned steep. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



THE PIPE BRIDGE. 



105 



This bridge, finished last year, carries the water supply from the Rox- 
borough to the Mount Airy reservoir at Germantown. It is a graceful 
structure, lifted a considerable height above the stream, and presenting 
the appearance of three light festoons hanging between the piers. The 
bridge is iron, and has four spans, each 172 feet 9 inches; its whole 
length is 691 feet, and it is supported by three iron piers, 8^ feet high, 
set on masonry 20 feet high ; an altitude of 103 feet above the level of 
the stream. Two twenty-inch water mains form the top cord of the 
bridge.^ 



1 Dr. Franklin in his will (1780) recommends, " as a mark of his good-will, a token 
of his gratitude, and a desire to be useful to us after his departure," that a portion of the 
legacy left to accumulate for the benefit of the city of Philadelphia, be employed "at the 
end of one hundred years, if not done before, in bringing by pipes the water of the Wis- 
sahickon Creek into the town so as to supply the inhabitants." His legacy remains un- 
used, but the work, by the appropriation of these creek borders and pipe connections, has 
now been completely done, and is a most appropriate tribute to his memory. 




To6 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




A HUNDRED yards above the Pi^^e Bridge, a wooden bridge crosses the 
stream ; leaving the carriage and crossing this bridge, turning to the left 
and following a pathway a short distance along the hill-side, yonr progress 
will be arrested by a stream, Creshein Creek, which joins the Wissahickon. 
At this point is 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



107 




THE DEVIL'S POOL. 

A spot frequented first by the superstitious in the early days of the pro- 
vince, and now, for more than half a century, by artists and all lovers 
of nature. It is certainly a wild place ; rocks are thrown together in 
great masses, and the long trunks of hemlocks and pines jut up from the 
darkness around the pool into the sunshine above. 



io8 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



The waters of a small tributary of the Wissahickon rim into this pool, 
whose depth has been very suggestive to the superstitious minds which 
gave it its name. 

The place is very readily accessible, and artists' sketches through our 
galleries have made it widely known. It was the scene of an engagement 
during the battle of Germantown, and its waters once had stains best now 
forgotten. 



The road reaches, a quarter of a mile beyond this bridge, 




VALLEY GREEN. 

Here the hills open out into the sunlight, and a stone bridge with strong 
buttresses winds across the stream. The bridge has one arch, and the 



FAIRMOUNT TARK. 



109 



arch and shadow on bright days (so clear is the reflection) seem one 
piece of masonry, an entire oval. 

The transition from the close surroundings of the road below this 
point, to the widening hills beyond it, is very pleasing. The hotel here 
is a favorite stopping-place for carriages passing through this portion of 
the Park. 



Half a mile further, on the left-hand side of the road, under rocks, 
covered with ferns and wild-flowers, is a marble water-basin. 




THE FIRST FOUNTAIN. 
This is the first drinking-fountain erected in Philadelphia. It bears 
date 1854. A clear, cold mountain spring constantly fills the basin. On 
10 



no FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

a slab above it are cut the words "Pro bono publico," and below, "Esto 
perpetua" (For the public good; Let it remain forever) ; which liberal 
desire and prayer the dedication oY these grounds, after sixteen years, 
has invisibly, though not less really, lettered over every spring along the 
borders of the stream. "Cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt 
find it after many days." 



Half a mile further, on the opposite side of the stream, looms grandly 
up, 

INDIAN ROCK. 

Here the stream enters a deep gorge. The hills tower almost perpen- 
dicularly, and the place has the solemn stillness of the shores of some far- 
off waters in the yet unbroken wilderness. A few huge rocks lie in the 
bed of the creek, but make no eddies in the water. The woods, clothing 
the inclosing steeps, bury their shadows in its dark surface. The rock, 
plainly seen from the road, very wild, grand, and lofty, crowns the sum- 
mits of the eastern range of hills. It is shaped like a fireplace or a pulpit, 
square, with a deep cavity or hollow in its front. On its top stands the 
rude figure of an Indian, set there in remembrance of the last chief' of 
the aborigines (the Lenni Lenape tribe) on these grounds. This chief, 
with forty other Indians, mostly women (the men had gone before), left 
this section about the time of the Revolution. They had remained long 



Tedyuscung, whose name this rude figure improperly bears, was no true savage- 
was litigious, was frequently drunk, and showed also other evidences of a tendency to 
lapse into civilization. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. m 

after the others of their tribe on these old hunting-grounds, but they had 
kept their savage nature and costume unchanged. The chief, with his 
blanket wrapped about him, and his tall plume of feathers on his brow, 
strode before; and the women, with their packs strapped across their 
backs and across their foreheads, followed after. So they joined the 
others in their journey toward the setting sun, 

" To the land of the Dacotahs, 
To the land of the hereafter." 

Is it hard in this wild place still to imagine their light canoes stealing 
along through the evening or morning shadows ? 



The road continues on a mile further, through the same general char- 
acter of scenery, to the northern limits of the Park, at Thorp's mill lane, 
which crosses a bridge and by a steep ascent reaches 




112 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




CHESTNUT HILL. 

This hill is the site of many of the best suburban residences of Phila- 
delphia. Here all the wild scenery of the Wissahickon, so closely shut 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 113 

in, opens outward over broad tracts of farm-land and distant mountains. 
It 'is a fitting terminus to this section, affording a view northward as grand 
in its character as that from Chamouni over the lower section of the 
Park; each completing the idea, conceived in the appropriation of these 
grounds, to lead the visitor from attraction to attraction, and close with 
an effect in nature which leaves nothing to desire. 




10' 



114 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

GALA-DAYS IN THE PARK. 
THE WINTER SEASON. 

Before the Revolution, if we may credit Graydon in his Memoirs, 
there were no graceful skaters outside of Philadelphia. "I have seen," 
he says, "New England skaters and Old England skaters, and Holland 
skaters, but the best of them could but make the judicious grieve; and 
though they (the Philadelphians) have never reduced it to a science, like 
the Londoners, nor connected it with their business, like Dutchmen, I 
will yet hazard the opinion that they are the best and most elegant skaters 
in the world." This may or may not be true now; but certainly one 
of the most pleasing sights this river presents is in midwinter, during 
the season of their carnival, and the intricate and graceful evolutions 
of some of these voyagers on the iron keel would seem still to challenge 
rivalry in this fine accomplishment and most healthful and enjoyable 
exercise. What is of equal moment, their complete apparatus frees the 
pleasure from its ordinary danger. 

The sleighers have also a fine route over the grounds to Belmont, 
whose restaurateur receives visitors the whole year, and in this season 
keeps an open wood-fire in its ancient hall. 

THE REGATTAS. 

These days have been epochs of pleasure for half a century to our 
citizens and strangers. The skill and emulation of the bargemen, and 
complete appointments of the Schuylkill Navy, give them great interest. 
In other places, we have spoken of the picturesque effects of these barges 
on the river. A description of the boat-houses and clubs also has its place 
elsewhere. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



MILITARY PARADES. 



"5 



In the original plan for laying out these grounds, adopted in 1859, a 
parade-ground was reserved on the tract lying contiguous to the present 
Mansion at the Hills ; it was used for drill by the First City Troop, and 
other organizations at the opening of the late war ; other portions of 
the grounds are now used for military parades and reviews ; the favorite 
site being the Lansdowne estate. These are grand occasions, and attract 
large concourses of people. 

MUSIC DAYS. 

A band plays on successive days during the week at the Hills, 
George's Hill, and Belmont, and adds greatly to the pleasure of the 
summer afternoons. 

THE GERMAN FESTIVALS. 

Our German population, fathers, wives, sons, and daughters — the 
family — have been our best examples in the use of these grounds ; from a 
time long anterior to our Park era, and while Parks were believed to 
be unsuitable to our business age, they resorted here to celebrate their 
national anniversaries; and here the various societies, gymnasts, and 
singers were wont to pass days of much exhilaration and real pleasure. 
Every house on the grounds was, at one time, devoted to the sale of the 
beverages of the fatherland — the hotels at Fairmount, the mansion at 
the Hills, the Sweet Brier Mansion, the mansion which formerly stood 
at Egglesfield, and all the mansions on the west bank of the river, were 
devoted to the music, the dances, and the athletic sports of our Teutonic 
brethren. A grand festival to the memory of Baron Steuben was once 
appropriately held on these grounds; the centenary of Humboldt was 
their last celebration. 



Ii6 FAIRMOUNT TARK. 

NUTTING DAY. 

This most charming feature in the enjoyment of the Park takes place 
late in the month of October or early in November, governed by the 
character of the season. The very large number of nut-bearing trees* 
within the Park limits suggested to the Commissioners this pleasure for the 
school-children which has become a gala day for the whole city. 

By admirable arrangements with the railroads passing through and near 
the Park, the children, ninety thousand, are by large trains set down in 
sections at various points at the same thne. Early on the morning of this 
long-anticipated occasion, nature is startled from the proprieties fitting to 
those "melancholy days, the saddest of the year," and the whole Park 
becomes a moving panorama for miles of happy, singing, romping, 
laughing children. When the reader reflects that on the last of these 
favorite days, one-sixth of the entire population of Philadelphia, by care- 
ful computation, were gathered on these grounds, he may realize a scene 
which a genial writer in our sister city well describes : — 

" Old mother nature kept one of her kindest smiles on that autumn day 
for the little ones. The sun was warm, the air bracing, and a yellow 
October haze had turned the road dust into sifted gold, and every stubbly 
hill-top into the delectable mountains. 

"To the children it was something which, in after years, would appear 
a big bright slice of their childhood. It was a new song in the dusty 
market-place, with a far-off echo of heaven in it, which they would learn 
by heart and we fancy will never forget. Even Croesus must pay a sum 
which gripes him for a picture by the old masters ; but every urchin took 
home with him from that nutting frolic a landscape of red-tinted trees 
and glancing rivers which Rembrandt nor Turner could paint; a picture 

' The nut-bearinji trees in the lower section of the Park number four thousand. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. Ii; 

at whose coloring no critic should ever fling his vapidities, its greens and 
umbers would only deepen and soften into rarer truth with time. There 
is a great and beautiful idea here ; no educator is so ennobling, so 
liberalizing, as the hills and the sea. Contact with God's world outside 
of a town is as necessary for the full development of the soul of a boy 
as fresh air is for his body." 

THE MASTER MECHANICS' CONVENTION. 

" Honors us the toil-worn hand." 

These grounds were last year the scene of an assemblage of the repre- 
sentatives of that power which characterizes the age in which we live. 
The mechanics of our nation assembled most appropriately where Frank- 
lin first effected that telegraphic connection with the clouds which now 
works by instant communication over the surface of the world ; and 
beside the waters of a river on which the first successful effort was made 
to move a vessel by that power which now rules all waters. In this 
age which moves on iron rails, thinks through iron wire, and has its being 
by mechanical contrivances, the highest representative is the mechanic. 

The crystal roofs of his palaces are open on every side to the sunlight, 
and their iron walls have no trace of human blood ; they are more 
honored than the palaces of hereditary kings, and in them assemble the 
subjects of no single empire, but the kings and peoples of the earth. 
The nation has accepted him as its representative to do honor on these 
grounds to the memory of the fathers of the republic on the day of the 
centenary, and the erection of one of those palaces for the first time in a 
State founded in deeds of peace, and on grounds free to all races and 
conditions of men, celebrates most fitly this great event of the age and 
the century. 



Ii8 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 




THE CENTENARY OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE. 

♦' The descendants of the old thirteen and their children will gather around the Inde- 
pendence altar of the country hallowed by Hancock, Morris, and Virginia's noblest son, 
and on that altar lay the fruits of peace." 

At Belmont Mansion, June 17th, 1870, was received the Congressional 
Committee on the Centenary of American Independence. Their favor- 
able report has now been sanctioned by Congress. Historic justice re- 
quired that this most memorable celebration in the relations of ourselves 
with the past, should be held at Philadelphia. Our city has the Hall of 
Independence, from whose steps the great Declaration was read, and 
from whose steeple the Bell of Freedom tolled ; and our State holds the 
decisive battle-field which extended the area of freedom so as to embrace 
all races of men, and secured an indivisible nationality for the States of 
America. Fittingly then shall the grander power of the present age be 
gathered at Philadelphia to do homage to its noble past, its soldiers, its 
statesmen, its philosophers, on whose work of hand and brain the nation 
and the age itself rest securely. On the 4th day of July, 1876, will 
assemble in Philadelphia, and on these national grounds, the great West — 
the future seat of the power of the nation ; the South — our brothers still, 
and more than ever now our brothers ; and the East — the seat of our 
most advanced intelligence ; with many earnest men, for freedom's sake, 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



119 



from other lands. It will be our privilege to make the City of Brotherly 
Love on that forever to be memorable day a hospitable home — a Mecca 
for the nation 3 and, " with malice towards none, with charity for 
ALL," on these grounds, endeared by associations with the Fathers of 
the Revolution, to renew their solemn vow to maintain and preserve the 
American Union. 




I20 FAIRMOUNT PARK, 

EXCURSIONS THROUGH THE PARK. 

THE USUAL WATER EXCURSION. 

By Steamboat, at Fairmount, to Sweet Brier, Columbia Bridge, Lans- 
downe, the Falls, the Wissahickon. 

BATEAU EXCURSION ON THE WISSAHICKON. 

At Wissahickon Hall, or Maple Springs, a bateau may be taken for 
the morning or afternoon. Return by Ridge Avenue cars to the city, or 
by boat to Fairmount. 

A BATEAU EXCURSION ON THE SCHUYLKILL. 

A bateau may be taken near the Park carriage stand at Fairmount, 
and points of interest visited along the shores. 

THE FAVORITE CARRIAGE DRIVE. 

From Fairmount to George's Hill, Belmont, and Chamouni, and return 
to Fairmount. 

A MORNING OR AFTERNOON TOUR. 

From Fairmount, by main carriage drive, to Chamouni, thence to the 
Falls Bridge, and by the Ridge Avenue to the Wissahickon, by the 
Wissahickon road to Valley Green ; return by Ridge Avenue into and 
through the east bank, or cross at Falls Bridge and by River Road, to 
Fairmount — time, four or five hours. 

A day's JOURNEY WITH CARRIAGE, 

From Fairmount, by the River Road, to the east bank; through this 
section to the Ridge Avenue, and by the Falls to the Wissahickon ; up the 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. I2i 

Wissahickon to Thorp's Mill Road, and by this road to Chestnut Hill. 
Return through Germantown and by School Lane, to the Falls. Cross 
the river at Falls Bridge; keep on the Falls road into the Park, and 
by Chamouni to George's Hill; thence to Lansdowne, cross the river 
at the Girard Avenue Bridge, and pass over the Hills to Fairmount en- 
trance, and by Green Street to Broad Street. 

TWO hours' pedestrian trip. 

Take Park accommodation train to Columbia Bridge ; thence walk 
from house to house, along the east bank, to Laurel Hill ; thence by 
Ridge Avenue cars to the city. 

THREE hours' PEDESTRIAN TRIP. 

Take Park accommodation train to Chamouni, and walk back to Bel- 
mont, and from Belmont by the ravines to Fairmount. It is three hours' 
leisure walking, car time inclusive, from Thirteenth and Callowhill Streets 
Depot %)ia as above to Fairmount. 

FIVE hours' PEDESTRIAN TRIP. 

Take Reading Railroad, Norristown branch, to Chestnut Hill; then 
descend the hill to the Wissahickon, and return along the Wissahickon 
road to Ridge Avenue ; take Ridge Avenue cars to the city. Five hours 
from the city, via Chestnut Hill, car time inclusive, back to the city. 

A day's JOURNEY FOR A PEDESTRIAN. 

From Fairmount entrance, by way of the Park carriage stand, along 
the range of boat-houses, to the Skaters' Club house (the last house) ; 
thence ascend the hill, by the Pavilion, on the bluff, continue the walk 
II 



122 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

by Grant's house, cross the Girard Avenue Bridge; thence to Lansdowne 
entrance, and through Sweet Brier and Lansdowne valleys, and up the 
zigzag, to the Concourse, then through Belmont valley ; cross to 
George's Hill, and from the Hill, by main carriage drive, to Belmont; 
from Belmont to Chamouni ; descend the hill to the river road ; pass 
along this road to Falls Bridge, there cross to the Falls Village ; pass 
along the Ridge Avenue to the Wissahickon, along the Wissahickon to 
Thorp's Mill road; up this road to Chestnut Hill; return along the 
same route, by the Falls Village, to the Park entrance on the Ridge 
Avenue, then along the bluff of the east bank to Columbia Bridge, then 
by the Schuylkill Water Works, and across the Hills to Fair mount. 
This walk embraces all the objects of interest in the whole Park. It is 
a day's journey for a pedestrian, and a good, healthy one. 



Walking is our best English inheritance; with more walking, 
men and women will have longer and lead better lives. 




FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



123 



TABLE OF DISTANCES. 



FROM FAIRMOUNT. 



To Girard Avenue Bridge . 
'* Lansdowne Entrance 
" Lansdowne . 
" George's Hill, direct 
" " " via Belmont 

" Belmont, direct 
" " via George's Hill 

•' Chamouni, via Belmont 
" " " George's Hill 

" The Falls, via River Road 
" " « George's Hill 
" The Wissahickon, via River Road 
" " " " George's H 

" " " " East Bank 

From the Falls to Wissahickon 

To Maple Spring Hotel 
" The Pipe Bridge . 
" Valley Green 
" The First Fountain 
" Indian Rock 
" Thorp's Mill Road 
" Chestnut Hill 



I mile. 
\y^ " 
2yi miles. 
Z^i " 
AVz " 
Z% " 
AVz " 
A%. " 
S% " 
AK " 
(>Vz " 
SVz " 
Vd " 
4 " 
I mile. 
IK " 
AK miles. 
4% " 
5^ " 
5X " 
7 " 




124 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



RULES AND REGULATIONS. 

Section I. — Penal. 

1. No person shall drive or ride in Fairmount Park at a rate exceeding 
seven miles an hour. 

2. No one shall ride or drive therein upon any other part of the Park 
than upon the avenues and roads. 

3. No vehicle of burden or traffic shall pass through the Park. 

4. No person shall enter or leave the Park except by such gates or 
avenues as may be for such purpose arranged. 

5. No coach or vehicle used for hire shall stand upon any part of the 
Park, for the purpose of hire. 

6. No person shall indulge in any threatening, abusive, insulting, or 
indecent language in the Park. 

7. No person shall engage in any gaming, nor commit any obscene or 
indecent act, in the Park. 

8. No person shall carry fire-arms or shoot birds in the Park, or with- 
in fifty yards thereof, or throw stones or other missiles therein. 

9. No person shall disturb the fish or water-fowl in the pool or pond, 
or birds in any part of the Park, or annoy, strike, injure, maim, or kill 
any animal kept by the direction of the Commissioners, either running at 
large or confined in a close; nor discharge any fireworks, nor afiix any 
bills or notices therein. 

10. No person shall cut, break, or in any wise injure or deface the trees, 
shrubs, plants, turf, or any of the buildings, fences, bridges, structures, or 
statuary, or foul any fountains or springs within the Park. 

11. No person shall throw any dead animal or offensive matter or sub- 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



125 



stance of any kind, into the river Schuylkill, within the boundaries of 
Fairmount Park. 

12. No person shall go in to bathe within the Park. 

13. No person shall turn cattle, goats, swine, horses, dogs, or other 
animals loose into the Park. 

14. No person shall injure, deface, or destroy any notices, rules, or 
regulations for the government of the Park, posted or in any other man- 
ner permanently fixed by order or permission of the Commissioners of 
Fairmount Park within the limits of the same. 

Any person who shall violate any of said Rules and Regulations shall 
be guilty of a misdemeanor, and for each and every such offence shall 
pay the sum of five dollars, to be recovered before any Alderman of the 
city of Philadelphia, as debts of that amount are recoverable, which fines 
shall be paid into the City Treasury, for Park purposes. 

Section II. — Licenses. 

1. No person shall expose any article for sale within the Park, without 
the previous license of the Park Commissioners. 

2. No person shall have any musical, theatrical, or other entertainment 
therein, nor shall any military or other parade or procession, or funeral, 
take place in or pass through the limits of the Park, without the license 
of the Park Commissioners. 

3. No gathering or meeting of any kind, assembled through advertise 
ment, shall be permitted in the Park without the previous permission of 
the Commissioners. 

4. No person shall engage in any play at base-ball, cricket, shinney, 
foot-ball, croquet, or at any other games with ball and bat, nor shall any 
foot-race or horse-race be permitted within the limits of the Park, except 
on such grounds only as shall be specially designated for such purpose. 



126 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

5. No person shall take ice from the Schuylkill within the Park, with- 
out the license of the said Commissioners first had, upon such terms as 
they may think proper. 

6. No person shall be permitted to use the shores of the river Schuylkill 
within the boundaries of Fairmount Park as a landing-place for boats, or 
keep thereat boats for hire, nor floating boat-houses with pleasure-boats 
for hire, except by special license or lease granted by the Commissioners, 
to be paid for as the Commissioners shall from time to time direct, and 
only at places designated by and under restrictions determined upon by 
said Commissioners. 

7. No regatta or boat-race by boat-clubs, whose houses are built upon 
any part of the Park grounds, shall take place within the boundaries of 
the Park without special permission granted by the Commissioners, or by 
their Committee on Superintendence and Police. 

8. Every boat or skating club, whose house or building is built on 
Park grounds, shall be required to obtain a license or lease from the 
Commissioners, on such terms and under such restrictions as the Commis- 
sioners shall determine. 

Section III. — ProJiihitions. 

1. No gathering or meeting for political purposes in the Park shall be 
permitted under any circumstances. 

2. No intoxicating liquors shall be allowed to be sold within said Park. 

Section IV. — Duties of Park- Guard or Police. 

I. It shall be the duty of the Park-Guard or Police appointed to duty 
in the Park, without warrant, fortliwith to arrest any offender against the 
preceding rules and regulations, whom they may detect in the commis- 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



127 



sion of such offence, and to take the person or persons so arrested forth- 
with before a magistrate having competent jurisdiction. 

2. It shall be the duty of the Park-Guard or Police appointed to duty 
in the Park, at the termination of each week, to make a written report to 
the Committee on Superintendence and Police of all infractions of these 
rules and regulations, the number of arrests made, the nature of each 
offence, the name of the magistrate before whom each offender was 
taken, and the amounts of fines imposed and paid in each case. 

By order of the Commissioners of Fairmount Park. 




128 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARK-GUARD. 

1. Neatness in dress, propriety in speech and demeanor, perfect 
sobriety, obliging manners, and courtesy towards every visitor of the 
Park, are essential requisites for a satisfactory discharge of the duties of 
the Guard. 

2. The uniform of the Guard being furnished by the Commissioners, 
it is only to be worn when on duty, and is to be kept in a cleanly and 
tidy condition. 

3. The Guard is expected to render all possible aid and assistance in 
case of accidents to pedestrians, horsemen, or carriages, and particularly 
to protect females and children against every kind of annoyance, rudeness, 
or insult from evil-disposed and disorderly persons. 

4. Whilst the Guard is expected to repress every kind of disorder and 
misconduct on the part of visitors, and to arrest those who are clearly 
guilty of an intentional violation of the rules and regulations ordained for 
the government and protection of the Park, great care is recommended 
not to become over-meddlesome, and thereby create instead of avoiding 
disorder. 

5. Arrests should only be made when either the Guard himself or some 
respectable person at hand can testify to a malicious violation of the rules 
and regulations. 

6. No arrest should be made for mere trifling violations, when a quiet 
reminder or reprimand would suffice to prevent a repetition of the offence. 

7. Great indulgence is recommended towards children ; but discreet, 
dignified, yet firm and decisive action towards gangs of unruly boys. 

8. No officer of the peace should ever disgrace his position by abusing 
his authority, or by the exercise of tyranny make himself a terror to well- 
disposed citizens. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



129 



9. The Guard will remember that they are numbered, to enable any 
respectable person to complain of their misconduct, which, when clearly 
established, will lead to their immediate dismissal. 

10. The Guard is required to make faithfully the weekly written report 
prescribed by the rules, and hand the same to the Chairman of the Com- 
mittee on Superintendence and Police, stating at the same time all com- 
plaints made by respectable persons concerning inconveniences or annoy- 
ances in the Park. 

11. The Guard is under the immediate direction of the Committee on 
Superintendence and Police. The Guard is required to obey the orders 
of the Chief Engineer of the Park. Such as are stationed near the Fair- 
mount Water Works, or near any other water works of the city of Phila- 
delphia, will duly respect the orders of the Chief Engineer of Water 
Works touching the property belonging to his department within the Park. 

12. In cases of emergency, the Park-Guard is subject to the orders of 
the Mayor of the city of Philadelphia. 

13. The Park-Guard is required to be on duty from 7 A.M. till sunset, 
during the months of May, June, July, August, September, and October, 
Those of the Guard who are on duty during the night, are required to 
report themselves half an hour before the day Guard is relieved. 

14. Every member of the Guard is bound to report in person at least 
once during every twenty-four hours, at the office of the Chief Engineer, 
situated within the limits of the Park. 

15. In case of sickness or other unavoidable inability to attend to his 
duty, every member of the Guard is required to have the fact immediately 
reported at the office of the Chief Engineer. 

16. Room will be provided near the Chief Engineer's office for the 
convenience of the Guard to put on and take off the Guard uniform. 

By order of the Committee on Superintendence and Police. 



THE SCHUYLKILL NAVY. 

The boats are classified as follows : — 

First Class .... Shells. 

Second Class , . . Outrigger Lapstreaks. 

Third Class .... Smooth Gunwale Barges. 

The regulation size of flags is as follows : — 
For boat-house, 30 X 4° inches, bunting. 
" boats, 12 X 18 " silk, to be carried at the bow. 

" racing, 6x8" " " " 

THE PACIFIC BARGE CLUB. 
Organized June 15, 1859. It is unattached to the Navy. Uniform: 
winter — pants dark blue cloth (Navy style), shirt black and scarlet 
striped, caps leather (skull) ; summer — pants white linen, hats straw. 
Number of members, active twenty, honorary four. 

BOATS. 
Imp . . . length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, varnished Spanish cedar. 
Flirt . . " 38 " "4; " 3d; " white cedar, painted. 
Wren . . " 27 " double sculls ; class, ist; color, varnished Spanish cedar. 

The Imp is considered the best boat of its class on the river ; carries 
eighteen persons. 

The club has an elegant model of the Wren, made by one of their 
members. It is twenty-seven inches long, of six different woods ; com- 
plete in every particular, and fastened with five hundred and four copper 
rivets. 

THE QUAKER CITY BARGE CLUB. 

Organized October 20, 1858. Uniform: shirt blue, with white trim- 
ming and trefoil corners ; cap blue, with name on front; jacket blue, with 
navy buttons ; pants blue. Number of members, active thirty, honorary 

(131) 



132 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



six. This club has held the first class champion flag for three successive 
years. It has also the second class champion flag for four-oared boats. 



Nautilus 
Cygnet . 
Bertha . 
Swan . . 
Spider . 
Iris . . . 
Wasp . . . 



BOATS, 
length, 48 feet ; oars, 4; class, 1st; color, varnished. 



42 
25 
30 
17 
40 
40 



" 4; " 2d; " white, 
double sculls ; class, 2d ; color, white, 
single " " 1st; paper. 

a it it a (( 

oars, 6 ; " 3d ; color, white body. 

" 4; class, 1st; paper. 



These two clubs occupy the first of the range of barge- houses going 
from Fairmount. It is of stone, and was built in i860. It is fifty-five 
feet long and thirty-five feet wide, divided into two compartments. The 
house has balconies at each end. 



THE PENNSYLVANIA BARGE CLUB. 

Was organized June 4, 1861, as the Atlantic Barge Club, and subse- 
quently changed to this name. Uniform : dark blue shirt, dark blue 
pants, and leather cap. Active members twenty-five, contributors thirty. 
Among their boats is a twelve-inch paper shell, thirty-two feet long; 
weight, thirty-two pounds ; built for and named Henry Coulter. 

BOATS. 

Falcon length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, red, gold stripe, 

" 38 " "4; " 3d; " black, gold stripe. 

" 42 " "4; " 2d; " varnished. 

" 20 " doul:)le sculls ; class, 2d ; color, red, black stripe. 

" 34'2" single " " 1st; "■ varnished. 

" 32 " " " " 1st ; " " paper. 

" ^2^i" " " « 1st; " 



Stranger ... < 


' 38 ' 


Mermaid .... ' 


42 " 


Celia ' 


20 " 


John Culin . . ' 


34 T' 


Henry Coulter " 


32 " 


JOSIE " 


?>2,yi" 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



133 



THE CRESCENT BOAT CLUB. 

Organized December ist, 1867. Uniform: for winter — dark navy 
blue coat, shirt, and trowsers, sailor cap with the club name; summer — 
straw hat, blue shirt and trowsers. Active members thirty-two, contri- 
buting eighteen. 

BOATS, 
length, 48 feet ; oars, 6 ; class, 2d ; color, green, black stripe. 
" 42 " "6; " 3d; " crimson, gold stripe. 

" 25 " double sculls; class, 2d ; color, crimson, gold stripe. 
« 14!/^" " " << 2d; " " " " 

a « « 2d; " « " " 

" " " 1st; varnished. 

42 " oars, 4; class, ist; color, " 

25 " single " 1st; " " 

28 " " " 1st; " " 

28 " " " 1st; " « 

15 " " scull; class, 2d; black. 



Intrepid 

lONE . . 
Sylph . 
Turtle 
Nereid 

GWLET . 

Crescent 
Petrel . 
Frolic . 
Ah Sin . 
Clam . . 



35 " 



The Pennsylvania and Crescent Clubs own and occupy the same build- 
ing (the second of the houses) ; it is of stone, fifty by forty feet, two stories 
in height, with a Mansard roof. 

Each club has entirely separate apartments, the boat-rooms on the first 
floor being separated by a stone partition-wall. In consequence of the 
higher grade on the Park front, the house is entered on the second floor, 
a six feet wide hall running between the dressing and reception rooms, 
on each side. The Crescent occupy the southwest side of the building. 
Their rooms are plastered alike, roughcast tinted, with gilt cornices. 
The dressing-room is furnished with closets for each member, a six-light 
chandelier, side lights, mirror, &c.; the wood-work finished in oak, and 
the floor oiled and varnished. 



134 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



The reception-room is finished in walnut, has a four-light chandelier, 
the furniture walnut and green rep ] the windows are curtained, the floor 
carpeted, and the walls decorated with paintings. A glass door opens out 
upon a balcony which extends along the entire river front of the house. 

The above-mentioned clubs were the first to introduce this style of 
building, affording the most commodious boat-houses in this country. 

BACHELORS' BARGE CLUB. 

Organized on the 4th of July, 1853; it is unattached to the Navy. 
Uniform : blue flannel shirt, bound with single white braid, gilt buttons on 
front and on the cuffs j blue cloth pants, heavy blue cloth pea-jacket, blue 
cloth navy cap lettered Bachelor, and black silk neckerchief. Summer : 
straw hat, black ribbon streamer and gilt letters Bachelor in front. 
Twenty-nine active members, twenty-three honorary members. 

BOATS. 

Bachelor . . . length, 52 feet; oars, 6; class, ist; color, varnished. 

Linda " 50 " "6; " 3d; " " 

Lotus " 42 " "4; " 2d; " green, gold stripe. 

Gazelle .... " 25 " double sculls; class, 2d; color, varnished. 

Brat " 30 " one pair sculls " ist; " " 

Cub " 32 " " " " " 1st; " " 

" — " oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. 

The house of this club is the third of the boat-houses ; a neat brown 
stone, Gothic edifice, two stories high, with balconies. It is fifty-five 
feet long, and twenty-five feet wide. It, as also the others, have the 
same general style and arrangements with the first of the houses. 



FAIRMOUNT TARK. 



UNIVERSITY BARGE CLUB. 



135 



Organized April 25, 1854, by classmen of the University of Pennsyl- 
vania. Uniform: red flannel shirt bound with black braid, jet buttons, 
and falling collar with black silk stars in the corners ; black pantaloons 
in winter, white in summer; black patent-leather belt with U. B. C. in 
raised plated letters ; black silk necktie ; black morocco jockey cap in 
winter, and in summer a white Mackinaw straw hat bound with black, 
with University in gold letters on the ribbon, and the initials of the owner 
painted in black on the crown. Forty-two active members, thirty-six 
honorary. It is now the senior club of the Navy. 

BOATS. 

University, length, 48 feet ; oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. 

Hesperus " 36 " "4; " ist; " " 

Lucifer . " 45 " " 6; " 2d; " white, black and red stripe. 

PHILADELPHIA BARGE CLUB. 

Organized December 8, 1862; incorporated July 13, 1870. Uniform: 
a plain double-breasted shirt of blue flannel, covered buttons, and white 
flannel trowsers, pea-jacket, and skullcap of same material as shirt. 
Number of members, seventeen active, and nine honorary. 

BOATS. 

Faugh a Ballagh, length, 42 feet; oars, 6; class, 2d; color, varnished. 

No Name " 22 " double sculls ; class, 2d; color, varnished. 

" 41 " oars, 4; class, ist; paper; weight 100 pounds, 

" 37 " " "3d; color, varnished. 

" 17 " single scull; class, 2d; color, varnished. 

The University and Philadelphia occupy jointly the fourth of the 
houses. It is 42 X 57 feet ; built of West Chester green stone, Mansard 



136 FAIRMOUNT PARK. 

roof; bay windows on the Park side, and is fitted up with dressing and 
reception rooms, balcony extending over the whole river front, and over 
the bay windows on the Park side. 

MALTA BOAT CLUB. 

Organized February, 1S60. The uniform is blue shirt trimmed with 
red cord, blue pants, blue sack-coat with navy buttons, and blue cap. 
Members, thirty-two active, three contributing, one honorary. In addi- 
tion to the boats as classified, this club is building two others. 

BOATS, 

Hiawatha . . . length, 43 feet ; oars, 6; class, 2d; color, green, gold stripe. 
" 35 " "6; " 3d; " orange, gold stripe. 

" 45 " "6; " 2d; " varnished. 

" 46 " "4; " 1st; " " 

" 18 " double sculls ; class, 3d ; color, varnished. 

VESPER BOAT CLUB. 

Organized February 22, 1865. It is unattached to the Navy. The 
uniform is dark blue flannel shirt (U. S. seaman's pattern), dark blue 
pants, cap, and pea-jacket. Members, thirty-six active, ten honorary. 

BOATS. 

Vesper .... length, 42)^ feet; oars, 6; class, 3d; color, white, gold stripe. 
Venture ... " 37 " " 4 ; " 3d ; " varnished. 
Onward ... " 373^ « "4; " 2d; " red, gold stripe. 

Vagabond . . " 26 " double sculls ; class, 2d ; color, varnished. 

Volant ... " 42 " oars, 4; class, ist; color, varnished. 
Two single working boats. 

The house of the Vesper and Malta is the fifth in order. Is an ornate 
structure of stone. 



Minnehaha 
Columbia . 
Idalia . . . 
Wasp . . . . 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



THE UNDINE BARGE CLUB. 



137 



Organized May 9, 1856. Uniform : blue flannel shirt with white trim- 
mings, blue pants, straw hat, black ribbon with word Undine in gilt 
letters. Members, fifty-eight active, ten honorary. A record of one of 
its members, from August, 1862, to January, 1871, shows an actual dis- 
tance pulled of over 11,481 miles. The Club's record shows that its 
boats are out from five hundred to seven hundred times yearly. For the 
year 1868, five hundred and fifty-one times 3 1869, seven hundred and 
forty-five times; 1870, six hundred and fifty times. The greatest number 
of miles rowed by a member was in 1866, 1402 miles; in 1867, 1224; 
in 1868, 1 281; in 1869, 2643; i" 1870, 1202. In 1868, twenty-four 
members rowed an average of 443 miles; in 1869, eighteen members 
an average of 551 ; in 1870, twenty-two members an average of 410. 

This Club occupies a portion of the Skating Club's house. 

BOATS. 

Scud length, 43 feet; oars, 4; class, 1st; color, varnished. 

Whisper " 42 " " 4; " ist; " '• 

New Atalanta . " 45 " "6; " 2d; " " 

Old Atalanta . " 40 " " 6 ; " 2d ; " blue, gold stripe. 

Undine " 40 " " 6; " 3d; " " " " 

Fawn " 23 J;^" double sculls ; class, 2d; color, blue, gold stripe. 

Crab " 17 " i pair " " 2d; " " " " 

Selah " 31 " " " " 1st; " varnished. 

Ripple " " single " " ist; " •' 

«C. V" " 20 " " " " " " 

Terrapin . ..." 17 " " " 2d; " " 
" 34 " double sculls ; " 1st; " " 



12^ 



138 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



ROWING TIME. 

The best time as yet made on the Schuylkill is — 



June I, 1867. 


Hesperus . . . 


. 4 oars 


1st class . 


. . 20 mill 


. 03 sec 


" I, " 


Bachelor . . . 


. 6 " 


ist " . 


. 20 




38 " 


" I, " 


Iris 


. 6 " 


3d " . 


• 19 




3- " 


" 15, " 


New Atalanta 


. 6 " 


2d " . 


. 18 




54 " 


July 1S69. 


Hiawatha . . . 


. 6 " 


2d " . 


. 18 




02 " 


" 


Minnehaha . . 


. 6 " 


3d " . . 


• 19 




05 " 


Oct. I, 1-870. 


Quaker City . 


4 " 


1st •' . 


• 19 




26 " 


" 5, " 


Single Scull. 






20 







The distance from Turtle Rock to Girard Avenue Bridge is 2060 feet ; to the rock just 
beyond the Connecting Railway Bridge on the west bank, X a ™ile ; to a point half-way 
between the lower end of the island and the steamboat landing on the west bank, I mile; 
to the Columbia Bridge, i mile and 1400 feet; to the middle of Peters Island, I'x mile; 
to Berkenbine's clearing, 2 miles ; to Laurel Hill landing, 2 miles and 2300 feet ; to a 
long white house on the west bank, half-way between the landing and the Falls Bridge, 
2}i miles ; to the Falls Bridge, 2 miles and 4600 feet. The stake boat was placed here 
at the race, October, 1870. 



LIST OF TREES AND HERBACEOUS PLANTS IN THE PARK 
WHICH FLOWER IN MAY. 



TREES AND SHRUBS. 



Acer. Maple. 

saccharinum Sugar. 

dasycarpuui Silver-leaved. 

platanoides Norway Maple. 

campestre English Maple 

pseudo platanus English Sycamore. 

rubrum Red Maple. 

Negundo. Box Elder. 

fraxinifolium Ash-leaved. 

Celtis. Beaver wood. 

Occident alls Western. 

Feaxinus. Ask. 

Americana American. 

juglandifolia Walnut-leaved. 

sambucifolia Elder-leaved. 

.ffiscuLUS. Horse Chestind. 

hippocastanum Common. 

Ohioensis Ohio. 

rubicunda Ruddy. 

pallida Pale-flowered. 

Pavia. Pavia. 

flava Yellow. 

humilis Humble. 

Cerasis. Cherry. 

multiplex pendula Weeping d. fl. 

Virginiana Virginia Bird Cherry. 

Cercis. Judas Tree. 

Canadensis Canadian Tree. 

Betula. Birch. 

alba White. 

nigra Black. 

Castanea. Chestnut. 

vesca Common. 

CoRYLUS. Hazel. 

Americana American. 

Halesia. Silver Bell. 

tetraptera Four- winged. 

Laurus. hauriis. 

sassafras Sassafras Tree. 

benzoin Spice Bush. 

LiRiODENDRON. TuUp Tree. 

tulipifera Tulip Flowering. 

MoRUS. Mulberry. 

alba White. 

rubra Red, 



Nyssa. Sour Gum Tree. 

vallosa Hairy. 

DiosPYROS. Persimmon. 

Virginiana Common Virginian. 

Salix. Willovj. 

fragilis Brittle. 

nigra Black. 

yitellina Golden. 

Russelliana Russell's. 

laurifolia Laurel-leaved. 

caprea pendula Kilmar'k Weeping. 

rosem rinafolia Rosemarj'-leaved. 

Cydoma. Quince. 

Japonica Japan. 

Japonica alba White. 

vulgaris Common. 

Kalmia. Kalmia. 

latifolia. Broad -leaved. 

Forsyth lA. Golden Bell. 

viridissima Green-leaved. 

Zanthoxylum. Toothache. 

fraxineum Ash-leaved. 

Staphyla. Bladder-nut. 

trifolium Three-leaved. 

Syringa. Lilac Tree. 

vulgaris Common. 

alba White. 

persica Persian. 

Calycanthus. Sweet Shrub. 

florida Flowering. 

EuONYMDS. Burning Bush. 

atropurpureus Dark Purple. 

Americana American. 

LiGUSTRUM. Privet. 

communis Common. 

Ribes. Rihes. 

aureum Gold en-flowered Currant. 

CoRNus. Dogwood. 

florida White-flowered. 

sericea Silky. 

Crat^gus. Hawthorn. 

oxycantha English. 

crusgalli Cockspur. 

Fagus. Beech. 

sylvatica Common wood. 



C 139) 



140 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



QUERCUS. Oak. 

nigra Black. 

faleata Spanish 

alba White. 

discolor Two-colors. 

rubra Red. 

prinus Chestnut. 

quercitron Dyer's. 

heterophylla Various-lea veJ. 

Carpinus. Hornbeam. 

Americana American. 

Platan us. Bitttonvood. 

occidental is Western. 

JUGLANS. Wabuit. 

regia Royal. 

nigra Black. 

compressa Shelbark. 

macrocarpa Large -fruited. 

alba Common Hickory. 

porcina Pignut " 

TiLiA. Linden. 

Americana American. 

rubra Red. 

Europea European. 

Paulo WN I A. Pa^doicnia. 

imperial is Imperial. 

Broussonetia. p. Mulberry. 

papyrifera Paper. 

Gleditschia. Locust. 

tricanthos Three-spined. 

inermis Thornless. 

Chionanthus. W. Fringe. 

Virginica Virginian. 

Gymnocladus. Ky. Coffee. 

Canadense Canadian. 

Alnus. Alder. 

glauca Mealy-leaved. 



Magnolia. Magnolia. 

cordata 11 eart-shaped leaf. 

tripetela Umbrella Tree. 

purpurea Purple-flowered. 

purpurea gracilis Slen. purple -flow'd. 

Amygdalus. Almond. 

persica flore pleno D. Persian. 

Azalea. Kosebay. 

viscosa Clammy. 

Berberis. Barberry. 

vulgaris Common. 

atropurpurea Dark Purple. 

Spirea. ISpirea. 

prunifolium Plum -leaved. 

Reevesii White-liowered. 

Kerria. Kerria. 

Japonica Japan. 

Deutzia. Deutzia.. 

scabra Rough. 

gracilis Slender. 

crenatafl. pi Double Pink-flowered. 

Viburnum. Vibumnm. 

prenifolium Plum-leaved. 

lantanoides Lantana-like. 

oxycocus T ree Cranberry. 

Weigelia. Weigelia. 

amabilis Lovely. 

rosen Rosy. 

Philaiielpiius. Mock Orange. 

coronarius Common. 

grandiflorus Grand-flowering. 

Rhus. Mist Tree. 

cotinus Wild Olive. 

LoNiCERA. Honeysuckle. 

tartarica Tartarian. 

alba White. 

xylosteum English Fly. 

Glycina. ) „, . . 
,,, > (jlycinia. 

Wistaria. ) ■' 



HERBACEOUS PLANTS. 



Erigeron. Plantain. 

bellidifolium Daisy -flowered. 

Panax. Ginseng. 

quinquifolia Five-leaved. 

pentstemon Pentstemon. 

pubescens Hairy. 

OxALiS. Wood Sorrel. 

acetosella Common. 

violacea Violet-flowered. 

stricta Upright. 



Cardamine. Lady Smock. 

Pennsylvanica Pennsylvania!!. 

Dentaria. Tooth l]^ort. 

laciniata Jagged. 

Arabis. Wall Cress. 

faleata. Sickle-pod. 
TradescANTIA. Spider Wort. 

Virginica Virginian. 

rosea Rose-colored. 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



141 



Veronica. Speedwell. 

setigera Bristly. 

arvensis Cornfield. 

serpyllifolia Serpyllium-leaved. 

CoNVALLARiA. Lily of Valley. 

majalis May. 

Smilacina. Smilacina. 

racemosa Racemose-flowered. 

trifolia Three-leaved. 

bifolia Two-leaved. 

POLYGONATUM. SolomOll's. 

multiflorum Many-flowered. 

Saxafraga. Saxafraga. 

Pennsylvanica Pennsylvanian. 

Virginica Virginian. 

HOUSTONIA. Hoiistoilia. 

cerulea Blue-flowered. 

Claytonia. Glaytonla. 

Virginica Virginian. 

Hepatica. Hepatica. 

triloba Three-lobed. 

Alsine. duckweed. 

pubescens Pubescent. 

media Mediate. 

Erythronium. Violet. 

Americanum American. 

Barb are A. Mustard. 

precox Early. 

CoRYDALis. (Jorydalis. 

lutea Yellow. 

FuMARiA. Fumaria. 

officinalis Officinale. 

Senecio. Groundsel. 

surea Yellow. 

Valerianella. Lamhs-lettuee. 

radiata Radiated. 

olitoria Salad. 

Aquilegia. Columhine. 

Canadense Canadian. 

Viola. Violet. 

pedata Pedate. 

blanda White. 

lanceolata Lance-leaved. 

hastata Halberd-leaved. 

saggitata Snow-leaved. 

rotundifolia Round-leaved. 

trifoliata lutea Three-leaved Yellow. 

striata Striped. 

arvensis Field. 

Chelidonidm. Celandine. 

majus Large. 

Anemone. Anemone. 

thalictroides Thalictrum-like. 

nemorosa Grove. 



SiNAPlS. 'Mustard. 

nigra Common Black. 

Leontodon. Dandelion. 

taraxacum Common. 

HiERACiUM. Hawkweed. 

venosum Veined-leaf. 

EuNEX. Dock. 

crispa Curled. 

obtusifolium Obtuse-leaved. 

Krigia. Krigia. 

Virginica Virginian. 

MuscARlA. Grape Hyacinth. 

botryoides Botrys-like. • 

Chcerophyllum. Chervil. 

Canadense Canadian. 

Smyrnium. Alexanders. 

trifoliatum Three-leaved. 

purpurea Purple. 

Trillium. Trillium. 

cerneum Drooping-flowered. 

Aralia. Aralia. 

nudicaulis Naked-stemmed. 

Thalictrum. E. Meadow Rue. 

dioeeium Dioecious. 

Caulophyllum. Canlopliyllnm. 

thalictroides Thalictrum-like. 

asarum Ginger Root. 

Canadense Canadian. 

CocHLEARiA. Scuvvygrass. 

armoracea Horseradish. 

Lamium. Archangel. 

ampelicaule Stem-clasp Hen. 

Galium. Bedstraw. 

Aparine CI eavers. 

tinctorium ....Dyers. 
Podophyllum. May Apple. 

peltatura Peltate- leaf. 

Chrysosplenium. Saxafrage. 

oppositifolium Opposite leaved. 

Ranunculus. Croivfoot. 

Pennsylvanica Pennsylvanian. 

bulbosa Bulbous. 

fascicularis Bundled. 

abortiva Abortive. 

Symplocarpus. Sku7ik Cahhage. 

foetidus Fetid. 

angustifolium Narrow-spathed. 

Arum. Arum. 

triphyllum Three-leaved. 

atrorubens Dark Purple Stalked. 

Draba. Draba. 

verna Vernal. 

Chrysanthemum. Chrysanthemum. 

leucanthemum Ox-eye Daisy. 



142 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



Glechoma. Ground Ivy. 

rotundifolia Kound-leaved 

hederacea Common. 

PoTENTlLLA. Ciuquefoil. 

sannentosa Twigged. 

Canadensis Canadian. 

Fragaria. Strawberry. 

vesca Wood. 

Geranium. Crane^s Bill. 

maculatum Spotted. 

Oknitiiogalhm. Star of Bcthlchein. 

umbellatura Umbel lated. 

Epige^. Ground Laurel. 

repens Creeping. 

Saliva. Sage. 

lyrata Lyre-shaped. 

Malaxis. Malaxis. 

]ilifolium Lilj-leaved. 



Nasturtium. Nastitrtium. 

officinalis Officinale. 

Medeola. Indian Cucnmber. 

Virginica Virginian. 

SiSYRYNCiiiUM. Blue-eyed Grass. 

anceps Iris-leaved. 

Heuciiera. Aram Root. 

Americana American. 

Plantago. Tlaiitain. 

major Large. 

Virginica Virginian. 

lanceolata Lance-leaved. 

crassifolia Thick-leaved. 

Trifolium. Clover. 

pratense Common Red. 

repens White Clover. 

campestre Slender Wood. 

Antennaria. Ant. 

plantaginea Plantain-leaved. 



LIST OF WORKS OF ART. 

Statue of Justice, at Faimiount, carved by Rush. 

" Wisdom, " " " 

The Graff Memorial, " 
Marble antique, " 

Leda and the Swan, " carved by Rush. 

Emblematic composition on wheel-houses, carved by Rush. 
Marble Fountain, copy from a celebrated fountain in Rome. 
The first fountain on the Wissahickon, marble. 
The Indian (roughly cut in wood). ^ 

Two Pegasus Groups (to arrive in June). 
Venus risen from the Bath, cast finished by Dr. Rush. 



COMPARATIVE SIZE OF PARKS IN EUROPE AND AMERICA. 

FROM THE MOST RELIABLE SOURCES. 

Park at the Hague, 200 acres. Alameda, City of Mexico, 12 acres. Park at Munich, 
320 acres. Peel, Manchester, 32 acres. Petit Park, Versailles, 1280 acres. Palais 
Royal, 10 acres. Tuileries, 50 acres. Luxembourg, 160 acres. Champs Elys^e, 225 
acres. The Bois de Boulogne, 2158 acres. Grosse Garden, Saxony, 800 acres. 
Schwebgingen, near Heidelberg, 300 acres. Schloss Garden, Stuttgard, 560 acres. Hof 
Garden, Munich, 500 acres. Thier Garden, Berlin, 200 acres. Djurgard, Stockholm, 480 
acres. The Prater, Vienna, 2500 acres. The Summer Garden, near St. Petersburg, 480 
acres. Boboli, Florence, 200 acres. Tzarsco Selo, near St. Petersburg, 350 acres, 
Sweetzingen, near Mannheim, 100 acres. Richmond Hill, 2468 acres. Lambeth, 250 
acres. Kew Garden, 684 acres. Arboretum, Derby, 50 acres. Meadows, Edinburgh, 
200 acres. Phoenix Park, Dublin, 1752 acres. Birkenhead, Liverpool, 185 acres. 
Kensington Gardens, 35 acres. Buckingham Palace, 40 acres. Hyde Park, 389 acres. 
St. James's Park, 59 acres. Green Park, 55 acres. Regent's Park, 450 acres. Norfolk, 
Sheffield, 20 acres. Primrose Hill, 50 acres. Greenwich Park, 200 acres. Baxter, 
Dundee, 37 acres. Victoria, 300 acres. Crystal Palace, Edinburgh, 200 acres. Bat- 
tersea, 175 acres. Albert Park, 409 acres. Kensington Park, 262 acres. Chiswick 
Gardens, ^^ acres. Windsor Little Park, 500 acres. Windsor Great Park, 1800 acres. 
Hampton Court, 1872 acres. Green, Glasgow, 121 acres. Prince's Park, Liverpool, 90 
acres. Washington, South Park, 150 acres. Hartford, Central, 46 acres. New York, 
Central Park, 862 acres. The other New York public grounds are — The Battery, 30 
acres; City Hall Park, loj^ acres; Washington Parade Ground, g}4 acres; Union Square, 
4 acres ; Stuyvesant Park, 4 acres ; Tompkins Square, lOK acres ; Madison Square, 7 
acres; St. John's Park, 4 acres; Gramercy Park, IK acre. Brooklyn, Prospect, 550 
acres. Baltimore, Druid Hall, 700 acres, and Patterson's Park, 353^ acres. San Fran- 
cisco has twelve squares of small extent — one improved. Cincinnati, Washington Park, 
4M acres; Lincoln Park, 7 acres; Hopkins, ij^ acre; City Park, i]4 acre; and Long- 
worth's Garden of Eden, 156 acres. St. Louis, Tower Grove Park, 276j'y^ acres; it has 
also fourteen others, containing 119 acres, and Shaw's Garden, the wonder of the West, 

(143) 



144 



FAIRMOUNT PARK. 



276 acres. Chicago, Lincoln Park, 50 acres; Washington Park 2^3^, acres; Lake Park, 
40 acres; Dearborn Park, i}i acre; Ellis Park, 3 acres; Union Park, 17 acres; Jefferso! 
Park, 5>i acres; Vernon Park, 4 acres: in all, nearly 126 acres, in addition to the River- 
side, 1600 acres. Boston, Common, 48 arres. New Haven, Wooster, 5 acres; the 
Green, 16 acres; the Brewster, 55 acres. Philadelphia, Hunting Park, 45 acres; Fair- 
mount Park, 2740 acres. The other Philadelphia Parks, or Squares, are — Logan Square, 
7 acres 3 roods; Franklin Square, 7 acres 3 roods; Rittenhouse Square, 6 acres 2 roods; 
Washington Square 6 acres 2 roods; Independence Square, 4 acres 2 roods; Jefferson 
Square, 2 acres 2 roods. 




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